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PRICE, OXTE DOLLAR. 



ILLUSTRATED EDITION OF 

THE MYSTERIOUS £1,000 BOOK 




AMERICAN NEWS COMPANY, Agents. 




THE KING IN HIS ROYAL ROBES. 



THE 



Private Life of a King. 



EMBODTING THE 



SUPPRESSED MEMOIRS 



THE PRINCE OF WALES, 



AFTERWABDS 



George IV, of England. 



NOW FIRST PUBLISHED. 



— 



By JOHN BANVARD, Artist. 



WITH CORROBORATIVE AUTHORITIES, DRAWN FROM THE SECRET ARCHIVES OF 

THE CHARTISTS, AND AUTHENTIC DOCUMENTS IN 

THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE LITERARY AND ART PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
806 Broadway. 

1875. 



DA5.3S 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by 

JOHN BANVARD, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



PREFACE 



MERICANS, in the contemplation of royalty, are led 
into the estimate of kingly character as presented to 
them through the medium of political history, and gene- 
rally written by sympathizers of royalty, and often under 
its direct influence. The sacred precincts of the palace are 
rarely invaded by the vulgar, and the secret misdoings 
there are carefully screened by the satellites who cater to 
the sensual pastimes of a king. We think the time has 
now arrived when royalty should be exhibited as it is, in 
all its deformity. The world moves, and the times demon- 
strate that man and government can do without a king, 
especially such a one as he whose character is portrayed in 
these pages ; that man is capable of governing himself ; that 
the monarchical system is on its decline. During the late 
civil war in the United States we heard repeatedly, and in 
many forms of expression, from monarchical Europe that the 
experiment of the republican form of government had failed, 
that the Great Eepublic had exploded, and it was so ex- 
ultingly announced on the floor of the English Parliament; 
and the various Governments of Europe acted upon this 
belief, and conducted their policy regarding the United 
States accordingly. But how egregiously they were mis- 
taken, the haste with which imperial Napoleon left Mexico 
to save the ignominy of being driven out after the " Great 
Republic" hinted he had better leave, and how readily 
monarchical England paid over the fifteen millions of dol- 
lars on account of her spoliation on republican commerce on 
demand, testify. 



Vi PREFACE. 

A common man may have vices or virtues, and these may 
be hidden, and when he dies all the good and evil of his 
moral character will find oblivion in the grave ; not so with 
a ting, for the effect of his accidental existence lives after 
him, and is, for good or bad, the property of the historian. 
In illustration of this we have, therefore, seized upon the 
private character of George the Fourth, as it is public his- 
torical property, and we shall endeavor to work what good 
we can out of it for the benefit of our fellow man and in the 
interest of the republican form of government; and 
perchance, though not expected, our writing may fall be- 
neath the royal eye of some European prince — perhaps the 
present heir to that throne once occupied by the subject of 
these memoirs — and remind him that his transient life, be it 
virtuous or sinful, will live after him ; and never mind how 
dark he thinks he keeps his secret vices, they will be shown 
up in all their hideousness by some future historian, as we 
now do those of his defunct titular namesake's. 

A king is, in the truest sense of the word, a public man ; 
not only so to his own people but to the world at large — for 
his "foreign policy " affects the remotest nations of the earth, 
and we have a right to examine and record his existence 
and its results as affecting our republican interests as we 
judge proper for the good of our fellow citizens. 

The chronicles of England exemplify the fact that the 
tone of the people's mind ever harmonized with the charac- 
ter of the ruling monarch. The vigorous character of 
Elizabeth formed the minds of her subjects to earnest ac- 
tions, while Charles II, by audacious profligacy, transplanted 
almost every foreign vice into his country ; and if England 
to-day enjoys the purest Court she ever possessed, it i& the 
reflex of the beautiful life and character of her pure and 
virtuous monarch. J. B. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Introductory. Birth of George III. How George II regarded the marriage rite. Han- 
nah Lightfoot. George III and a strange mystery. Secret history suppressed. 
Private theatricals at Holland House. Marriage of George IH. Bacchanalian 
Scenes at Lambeth Palace. Scandalous lives of the clergy. 

CHAPTER II. 

Birtn of George IV. The Stamp Act. Invested with the title Prince of Wales. Bap- 
tism. His skill as a youthful musical amateur. First failure in love making. 
Two future Kings of England arrested in disguise. The beautiful maid of 
Honor. Mrs. Robinson, the actress. The sylvan beauty of Richmond's groves. 
The Perdita and Florizel romance. The Oxford students. The flower girl. 

CHAPTER III. 

The Prince attains his majority. Introduced to the House of Peers, November 11, 
1783. Burke, Fox, and Sheridant ie great triumvirate. Festive wit. A beautiful 
meteor in the social sky. The English nation tired of the American War. Mrs. 
Billington the celebrated singer. Questionable associates. Dealings with money 
lenders. Love letter to the Duchess of Devonshire. The contested Westminster 
election in. 1784. Miss Johnstones's wit. 

CHAPTER IY. 

Mrs. Fitzherbert. Her history. Desperate love of the Prince. Her departure for 
Holland. Their marriage. Mary Anne Fitzherbert the legal wedded 
wife of the Prince of Wales. The mysterious sealed box in Coutfs bank. 
Letter of the Duke of Wellington. Mrs. Fitzherbert's death. 

CHAPTER T. 

Generosity of the Prince. His enormous debts. Loan of the Duke of Orleans. First 
illness of George III. The Regency '.Bill. The Prince of Wales initiated into 
the mysteries of Freemasonry. " Amateur theatricals at- Richmond House. Old 
English hospitality. Sunday evening amusement at Court. 

CHAPTER YI. 

An unnatural Mother. Titled ladies as gamesters. The Diamond Locket. A Rural 
Breakfast. A Prince's opinion of female virtue. The wooden spoon story. 
Wisdom and Folly. The beautiful Lucy Howard. Faro tables in nohle man- 
sions. The infamous Lady Archer. The initials. 

CHAPTER YII. 

Brilliant Court at Carlton Palace. The Pavilion at Brighton. Bon mot of Sheridan. 
The famous horse "Escape" of the Prince. Fraud at the gaming table. Secret 
agents. Marriage of the Duke of York. The Post Obit Bonds. Royal swind- 
lers! The mysterious wreck. Anecdotes of the servants of Carlton House. 
Proposed alliance of the Prince with Caroline of Brunswick. 

CHAPTER YIII. 

The influence of the Press. Jeffery's negotiations for the marriage jewels. Birth of 
Princess Charlotte. A separation proposed of the Prince from Caroline. The 
history of M'Mahon, the infamous panderer. The Royal Marriage Act. What 
George III paid the Prince of Hesse Cassel for the Hessians to put down Brother 
Jonathan. Accession of Fox to ministerial power in 1806. Innocence seeking 
the protection of the Church. 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Peace of Amiens. Hatred of the English for Napoleon I. The American rebel- 
lion of 1861. George IV as an imitator of John Kemble. A future King of Eng- 
land snubbed by an opera dancer. A star of the British Court. The lost Pleiad. 
Where the money of the people goes. A national tragedy. Visits of Sir Sydney 
Smith to Montague House. Lady Douglas accuses Caroline of high treason. 
Death of Pitt and Fox. 

CHAPTER X. 

History of the memorable trial of the Duke of York, in 1809. The English army led 
by an adulteress. Charge in the House of Commons. Abject state of the 
clergy. The heroine of the day. The Ambassador of Morocco. The Duke 
resigns the command of the army. Wilberforce's offence to the Royal family. 

CHAPTER XI. 

Thackeray's lectures on the four Georges. Lord Heaves' defence. The Tory Editor 
of Blackwood. The satires of Punch. Return of the King's malady. The 
Prince as Regent. Royal love of show. The wonder of American travellers at 
the pliancy of British subjects. 

CHAPTER XII. 

Power of female beauty and accomplishments. The clergyman's daughters. The 
Duke of Queensbury's opinion of women. The Assassination of Spencer Per- 
ceval. Resignation of Wellesley. Sequel to the bond story. A benevolent Jew. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

A coming drama. The King's wardrobe. Visit of the Emperors. Romantic escape 
of the Princess Charlotte from Warwick House. Departure of Caroline from 
England. Triumph of the Prince Regent. Treaty o' Peace with America, 1814. 

CHAPTER XI Y. 

Loss of Naval prestige. Waterloo. Marriage of the Princess Charlotte. Royal 
hobbies. Death of Sheridan. Dlness and death of the Princess Charlotte. 
Suicide of Sir Richard Croft. Death of Queen Charlotte. 

CHAPTER XT. 

Last years of the Regency. The skeletons of Royal closets. Birth of Victoria. Death 
of George III. The Chartists. Accession of George IV. The Milan Commis- 
sion. The Bill of Pains and Penalties. Trial o£ Caroline. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Coronation of George IV. Humiliation of Caroline. The King's visit to Ireland. 
Illness of Queen Caroline. Anxiety of the People. Her Death and Funeral. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

The crown of Hanover placed on the head of George IV. Greville's Memoirs. Impeach- 
ment of the House of Brunswick. The Duke of Queensbury and the parvenu. 
Visit to Scotland. The black book of the Chartists. Perceval's suppressed 
book. 

CHAPT'ER XVIII. 

Opening of Parliament, 1824. The Catholics and Orange lodges. The King emerges 
from his retirement to open Parliament, 1826. Death of the Duke of York 
and George Canning. Rumors of the King's illuess. Alarm of the People. The 
King informed his last moments are at hand. The sacrament. Last words — 
"This is death." 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 



fflfoatrtw jtatt. 



" Let facts be submitted to a candid world," says the 
American Declaration of Independence when enumerating 
on the many wrongs that were inflicted upon this country 
by George III, the immediate progenitor of George 
Augustus Frederick, the subject of these pages. In this 
work we propose to recount some facts not enumerated in 
that catalogue of grievances, although some of them were 
the direct cause of the u repeated injuries and usurpations " 
therein stated. 

The first words uttered by George III after he was noti- 
fied of the death of the reigning sovereign, and he, conse- 
quently, King, were the distinct utterance of A lie. At 
the time he was out riding, when a messenger, who was 
sent to tell him of the death of the King, met him and 
informed him that he was sovereign. George did not 
reply, but for some reason known to himself turned to his 
attendant, and, to their great surprise, said that his horse 
had become lame, and he must return to Kew, and, 
although his groom assured him to the contrary, he re- 
turned immediately. 

A writer observes, " It is singular that the longest reign 
in British annals should have commenced with the utter- 
ance of an unnecessary and puerile falsehood.' 7 * 

* Cassell. London. 
1* 



10 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

As George III figures extensively in American political 
history, and his public acts are well known, we will here 
give a slight sketch of his private life, which has not found 
comment in our histories, as a prelude to that of his more 
abandoned son, George Guelph, of infamous memory, and 
— " let facts be submitted to a candid world." 

George III, that j>rince " whose character was marked by 
every art which may define a tyrant," was born 4th of 
June, 1738, and, in the words of Shakspeare, " scarce half 
made up," as his mother did not go her " full time," for 
George III did not have strength of brain given him to 
carry him through his lifetime, as he was but an idiot the 
latter part of his days, and the great losses the British 
realms sustained during his reign may be attributed to his 
mental incapacity, occasioned by his being ushered into the 
breathing world before his time. However, on this point 
there has been some controversy, some denying his legiti- 
macy, which his mother explained by his being a " seven 
months' child." Not expecting he would live, he was bap- 
tized on the day of his birth. 

A healthy gardener's wife was hired to suckle him, and, 
like a sensible mother, she took her charge to bed with her, 
to the utter dismay of the royal family — a novel and vulgar 
familiarity, which was vehemently objected to. " Nay, 
nay," said the good woman, "you may nurse the boy your- 
selves." She was wisely allowed to have her way. 

The x>oet laureate got upon stilts at his birth, and in 
grandiloquent rhyme presented his best thanks to Nature 
that she did dare to "complete the wondrous man," George. 

After the usual nursery career, he was consigned to a 
governor and his preceptor, and commenced his studies at 
about six years of age. 

George III. did not like some of his early preceptors, 
especially Lord Walgrave, and the dislike appears to have 
been mutual.* In his Memoirs Walgrave says : " I found 

* Walpole's Reign of George IT, vol. 1, page 328. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 11 

His Highness uncommonly full of princely prejudices, 
contracted in the nursery, and improved by bedchamber 
women and pages of the back stairs."* So it appears that 
thus early in his life women began to exert an influence 
over him. He was very backward in " book learning," his 
mother said, at the age of seventeen. On the other hand, 
he was good natured and cheerful.t The Princess, his 
mother, knowing well from her own experience of the natu- 
ral frailties of the female sex, for she, at the time, was hav- 
ing adulterous intercourse with the Earl of Bute.l We will 
call things by their right names, not hi the tender language 
of Capt. Jesse, who, in his "Memoirs of George III," when 
speaking of this well known connection, " that it was al- 
most universally believed that a tender connection existed 
between the Princess Dowager and the Earl of Bute." It 
was not " believed " only, but universally known, that she 
was in sinful communion with Bute. It was greatly to 
the interest of the Earl of Bute and his royal paramour to 
maintain a commanding influence of the heir apparent, and 
they ommitted no means whereby they could attain this 
end, and how well they succeeded the independence of this 
Kepublic proves, for it was this undue influence that Bute 
gained over the Prince, and maintained while King, who 
carried out all his recommendations as minister regarding the 
oppression of the colonies."§ But for Bute's influence over 
George III, we might now be but colonies of Great Britain, 
and as far behind the age of progress as are now " Her Ma- 
jesty's Territories of the New Dominion." The Prince being 
cognizant of the said "tender relations" existing between 
his mother and the Earl of Bute, it is not to be believed 

* Walgrave Memoirs. 

f Jesse's Life of George III, vol. 1, page 20. 
\ Jesse's Life of George III, vol. 1, page 25. 
§ Memoirs of George III. 
(See also Lossing's Field Book of the Revolution. Also Bancroft.) 



12 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINGK 

that lie could have lived a very virtuous life with the 
females of his mother's Court and the " women of the bed- 
chamber.'^- with whom he principally associated, as his 
passions were being developed in the full power of man- 
hood, for his mother was afraid to trust him in the com- 
pany of the maids of honor, whom she intimated u were no 
better than they should be." Scott, his preceptor, writing 
to a lady friend of his, says : " Several of the young ladies 
of the Court try to entrap His Eoyal Highness the Prince 
with their fascinations and blandishments, and as certain 
of them are very alluring they may succeed, for though a 
Prince he is but mortal." 

When at Polton, afterwards, Mrs. Coldwood said : 
"When Prince George was about eighteen years of age, 
I had frequent opportunities of seeing George Scott, and 
asked him many questions about the Prince of Wales. He 
said he is extremely honest, and has no turn for extrava- 
gance, but has great temptations to be gallant with the 
ladies, who lay themselves out in a most shameful manner 
to draw him in." Usually to the stronger sex has been 
attributed the crime of seduction, but here is certainly 
historical proof to the contrary, for we see that the Prince 
was actually seduced by the Court ladies, who, in the words 
of his preceptor, " laid them themselves out " especially for 
this purpose, and his preceptor was certainly in a position 
to know. 

His favorite among the ladies was his mother's maid of 
honor, the beautiful and fascinating Miss Chudleigh, after- 
wards the celebrated Duchess of Kingston, who, as a 
writer says, understood the disposition of the Prince, 
and a lady (?) whose intimate experience in the intrigues 
and gallantries of a Court enabled her to succeed.f The 
minister of the King endeavored to neutralize the in- 
fluence of the Princess his mother and the Earl of Bute 

♦Walpole, f Monthly Magazine. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 13 

over the heir apparent. To effect this, Walpole, who, as he 
says, believed him " young and chaste," writes, " What 
influence might not a youthful bride obtain over the 
Prince?"* Suggestions of marrying him to some eligible 
Princess, and by such means remove him out of the influ- 
ence of the courtly lovers, his mother and Bute. 

The Prince was very ungrateful and thankless. His 
Aunt Amelia told Horace Walpole that having one day, 
when the prince was a boy, done something to incase him, 
the Princess Dowager said to her, " Madam, you are very 
good to my children j but, madam, if you was to lay down 
your life for George, George would not be obliged to you."f 

Lord Chesterfield, who was then training his only son, 
not to abandon vice, but to be a gentleman in the practice 
of it, pronounced the Prince to be " a most hopeful boy, 
gentle, and good natured, with good sound sense." His 
royal grandfather, on the other hand, declared he "was 
good for nothing except to read the Bible to Ms mother" — 
a good, and homely, and not unprincely virtue. The Prince 
of Wales was undoubtedly of a less vivacious spirit than 
his brother and companion, Edward of York, and certainly 
had through life a more correct sense of propriety. I de- 
rive from a note of Mrs. Piozzi's, written in a copy of u Wrax- 
all's Memoirs," which she was annotating, one evidence of 
the correctness of the Prince's conduct, and which evidence 
reached Mrs. Piozzi through a cousin attached to the house- 
hold of Prince Frederick. " The Princess was sitting one 
day of her early widowhood, pensive and melancholy, her 
two eldest sons were playing about the room. c Brother, 7 
said the second boy (Edward, Duke of York,) when you and 
I are men grown, you shall be married, and I will keep a 
mistress.' l Be quiet, Eddy,' replied the Prince of Wales, 
' we shall have anger presently for your nonsense. There 

* Walpole's George III. See also Lord Chesterfield. 
fLast Journals of Horace Walpole, vol. 1, page 111. 



14 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

must be no mistresses at all.' ' What you say f cries old (?) 
Augusta, l you more need learn your pronouns, as the pre- 
ceptor bid you do. Can you tell what is a pronoun V i Yes, 
very well/ replied Prince Edward, c a pronoun is to a noun 
what a mistress is to a wife — a substitute and a represent- , 
ative.'* Whatever parts the Prince's tutors may have had, 
one of their pupils, at least, was not without a lively knowl- 
edge of the world. The Dowager Princess had reason to be 
afraid of the manners of the age — here was one of her caged 
birds with the audacity of a page, and an insight into social 
arrangements that would have made him popular with the 
Mormons had that polygamous sect then existed. 

Walpole again urged the necessity of marrying the Prince 
in order to counteract the influence of Bute and the Princess 
of Wales. The King entered into the views of Walpole,. and 
said it would perhaps be politic to " amuse the Prince with 
matrimony." Thus did the old King speak of God's most 
sacred ordinance as amusement only, not as a holy sacrament, 
merely a pastime for princely amusement. 

In 1754 the Prince exhibited evidence of his constitu- 
tional warmth of temperament and the susceptibility to the 
fascinations of female loveliness, by falling desperately in 
love with a very obscure individual, no less a personage 
than a discreet and amiable young Quakeress, the lovely 
Hannah Lightfoot. This is the first known amour of his 
outside the palace walls, and around which there has been 
thrown a great deal of romance and mystery. A peculiar 
interest has been attracted to this affair, deserved partly 
from the youth of the parties and the previous history of 
the young lady. A strange mystery hangs over the fate 
of the beautiful girl, who, whatever may have been her 
secrets or her sorrows, she carried them unshared to her 
grave.t 

* Doran's Princess of "Wales. 

f Memoirs of George III. Jesse : London, 1867. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 15 

There was a u Secret History of the Court of George III " 
printed in London, but telling too many unpalatable truths 
regarding the royal household, and containing courtly se- 
crets ; it was immediately suppressed. In that u Secret 
History " are some details given regarding the particulars 
of the elopement and marriage of Hannah Lightfoot. It is 
stated that she was married by a Dr. Wilmot, and that his 
royal brother witnessed the ceremony ; this Dr. Wil- 
mot was also asserted to be the famous Junius. Another 
statement is that she was married by a certain Rev. Mr. 
Keith in the same place, the Ourzon Street Chapel ; while it 
has been denied they were ever married at all. There are 
persons now living claiming to be the legitimate descend- 
ants of this marriage ; and if so, as the marriage took place 
before the enactment of the " Royal Marriage Act," wherein 
the laivs of God are assumed to be annulled by act of Par- 
liament, the legitimacy of the present incumbent of the 
throne of England, Victoria I, can well be questioned. 

The family of Hannah Lightfoot originally came to Lon- 
don from Yorkshire 5 her father was a respectable trades- 
man, residing at Execution Dock, Wapping, in the east — a 
district sufficiently remote and obscure, one would have 
thought, to have preserved his daughter from the tempta- 
tions of a Court. Unfortunately, however, she had an 
uncle in business of the name of Wheeler, who resided 
near St. James' Palace. It was in his house she was 
destined to press the pillow of innocence for the last time, 
and it was here the Prince of Wales accidentally saw her 
for the first time. He returned to the palace after this first 
view of her wondrous beauty desperately in love. He 
thought of her constantly, and after concealing his passion- 
for some time resolved to possess himself of her, so he 
called into requisition the services of his palace favorite, 
who had been enjoying secretly his " tender passion," the 
lovely Miss Chudleigh, who was afterwards the too cele- 



16 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

brated Duchess of Kingston,* a lady who was very skill- 
ful in such affairs, and had an intimate experience in the in- 
trigues and gallantries of the Court. After calling on the 
young Quakeress a number of times, she opened her " first 
parallel V against the virtuous citadel heart of the confiding 
girl. She dazzled her eyes, and the youthful imagination of 
her intended victim. Unfortunately, the young and incon- 
siderate girl listened to the courtly siren, and she eventu- 
ally persuaded her to leave her family and forsake the home 
of her youth. 

There are copious details given in a history published in 
London, in 1832, of this love affair of the Prince. The 
work was entitled u A Secret History of the Court of Eng- 
land from the Time of George III to the Death of George 
IV," which was immediately suppressed by the Govern- 
ment as soon as it made its appearance, as the facts treated 
of were of too momentous import to the Government to 
be allowed to circulate. The writer was said to be Lady 
Anne Hamilton, but as the authority is not considered reli- 
able we will not quote them. It has been asserted that when 
Hannah left her uncle's house it was with the distinct un- 
derstanding that she was to be married lawfully to the 
Prince, that she on no account was to be his mistress. 
Missing their child, her parents advertised her in the Lon- 
don newspapers, but to no purpose. 

The young Quakeress' charms were said to have had such 
potency in them that the Prince privately married his beau- 
tiful idol at Curzon Street Chapel, May Fair, in the year 
1759.f Where the Prince and the fairy kept household is 
not on record, but the romance goes circumstantially into 
details, the chief of which relate to the alleged offspring of 
this supposed marriage, to the awakening of the Prince from 
his dream, and to the subsequent marriage of the well en- 
dowed fairy with a conveniently found swain. 

* Monthly Magazine, vol. 2, page 632. 

f Doran's Lives of the Princes of Wales, page 507. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 17 

About the history, however, of Hannah Lightfoot there 
still rests an impenetrable mystery. At the time of her dis- 
appearance from the house " at the corner of Market Street, 
St. James' Market," she was the guest of her uncle Wheeler. 
The tradition still existing in her family is, that she left the 
house in St. James' to marry a "Mr. Axford," a perfect 
stranger to all but herself, at Keith's Chapel, in May Fair ; 
and that, in spite of every inquiry, she was never seen nor 
heard of afterwards by her relatives. Yet it is known that 
she sat to Sir Joshua Eeynolds for her portrait ; and it is 
not unreasonably supposed that this must have been by 
order of her royal lover. This fine work still exists at 
Knolle Park, Kent, and is described as the portrait of "Mrs. 
Axford." One would certainly like to know what became 
of this shy but successful young Quakeress. The secret 
must be with some one, however, for it is affirmed that the 
wife of one of the Prytherchs of Abergole is her grand- 
daughter.* 

The marriage has been as positively denied as it has been 
strenuously asserted ; and it is impossible at this late 
day to ascertain the truth with certainty. But it is well 
known that the lovers kept house together $ that they were 
devotedly attached to each other ; and it is added by some 
authorities that there were children born to them. In the 
progress of time, however, George became indifferent to the 
sedate and monotonous charms of the Quakeress, and she 
was disposed of by being married to Axford, who received 
her and her very considerable dower without asking any 
impertinent or inconvenient questions. From that period 
Hannah and her subsequent fate disappear beneath the 
shadows of oblivion. 

The fair and fascinating Lady Sarah Lennox was the next 
object of the affectionate regard of the young Prince. On a 
certain occasion the tragedy of "Jane Shore" was enacted at 

* Notes and Queries, 1856, vol. 1, page 322. 



18 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING-. 

Holland House. Charles Fox represented Hastings, and 
Sarah Lennox played the part of the unfortunate yet beau- 
tiful heroine of the piece. Her acting was so natural and 
affecting, and her personal charms were so powerful, that 
she completely stormed the heart of the susceptible Prince, 
who witnessed her performance ; and had she not been a 
subject, her lover would have led her to the altar, and 
possessed her honorably. It was affirmed that a u tender 
connection " existed between them outside of legal wedlock. 
At the present day no positive evidence exists of this fact, 
but, looking at all the circumstances, it is presumed such 
connection did exist. 

Lady Sarah Lennox was only seventeen years of age when 
her fascinating charms and bewildering beauty captivated 
the heart of the young Prince. This is not to be wondered 
at, for she was universally acknowledged to be the most beau- 
tiful lady of title in England. Edward IV, or the Blue Beard 
Harry VIII, would have married her publicly and placed 
her on the throne until their loves were sated, regardless of 
all consequences. Charles IPs course would probably have 
been, judging from his reckless character, to have se- 
duced her. What course this Prince adopted to possess 
her is in doubt, some writers asserting there was no illicit 
connection, while the chroniclers of the time say there was.* 

Walpole affirms that the young lady was beautiful be- 
yond conception, and that her loveliness and expression were 
above the reach of artists to emulate. This peerless fair 
one's mother, the Duchess of Eichmond, was more beauti- 
ful than even her daughter Lady Sarah, or her other two 
daughters, one of whom became the mother of Charles Foxj 
the other, of the unfortunate Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 
The lady who had touched the Prince's heart so nearly was 
about seven years his junior, but the legend will have it 
that he made her an offer of marriage, which she accepted, 

* Selwin and His Correspondence. London, 1843. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 19 

and, as some say, was married. It must have been a short 
lived and secret honeymoon, however brilliant a romance, 
for when Lady Sarah appeared publicly at her royal 
lover's wedding, when she was only in her eighteenth year, 
it was not as bride, but as bridesmaid ! She found speedy 
consolation, too, in marrying Sir T. 0. Bunbury, and subse- 
quently the Hon. George Napier. The eldest child of this 
marriage was the gallant soldier, Sir Charles Napier, whose 
"very existence" is described by his brother, Sir William, 
as being an "offence to royal pride." Thus the Napiers 
seems to have held that the Lady and not the Prince was 
to blame. An antagonism, almost comical^ was established 
on the Napier side. When the two respective eldest sons of 
the two marriages once met at Court, the son of Lady Sarah's 
old lover (George Augustus, Prince of Wales) u took the 
liberty" of calling Lady Sarah's son, u Charles !" A grace- 
ful condescension which the -Latter young man, then nine- 
teen, notified to his mother with an ungenerous, "Marry, 
come up, my dirty cousin." 

It has been often said by those who wished to damage 
the character of Charles Fox, that he employed very active 
influence in the love passages which passed between Lady 
Sarah Lennox and the Prince of Wales, about the year 1760 ; 
and that this influence turned to induce the Prince to marry 
that fair cousin of young Charles. It is not likely, even if he 
were in the secret of the existence of the love, that he was in 
the confidence of the lovers ; or that he could have exer- 
cised any influence at all in an affair of such delicacy. 

As the Prince manifested too erratic a disposition in his 
amours, the King and his advisers bethought themselves to 
" amuse" him with marriage, and an eligible bride was 
sought for. 

Yarious persons were suggested in this emergency. The 
mother of the Prince, and Lord Bute, who already occupied 
the questionable relation toward her which afterwards led to 



20 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KTNCK 

his elevation to the premiership, were in favor of a member 
of the house of Saxe-Gotha, to which she herself belonged. 
But George II declared, in no very delicate manner, that 
he had had enough of that family already. At length Co- 
lonel Graeme, a Hanoverian favorite of the monarch, was 
despatched to the continent with orders to visit all the 
German courts without divulging his purpose 5 to scruti- 
nize the merits and peculiarities of the several eligible prin- 
cesses, and report the results of his observations. In the 
execution of this commission, the Colonel happened to pass 
a few days at the famous baths of Pyrmont. There were 
collected together a number of noble families for the pur- 
pose of enjoying the salutary effects of the waters. Eti J 
quette and formality were in a great measure thrown aside; 
and delicate and fair young ladies, who at home were 
models of obedience to the rigors of an iron restraint and 
formality, enjoyed themselves with a i)erfect and healthful 
freedom. Among the handsomest and wildest of these 
enfranchised young slaves were the two daughters of the 
Dowager Duchess of Mecklenburg Strelitz. The vigilant 
Colonel soon became sensible of the superior beauty and in- 
telligence of the younger of these ladies, the Princess Char- 
lotte Sophia, and immediately fell vicariously in love with 
her. He sent information directly to the Court of London 
of the important discovery which he had made ; expatiated 
at length upon • the merits of the Princess ; and thus be- 
came the means of eventually providing a Queen for Eng- 
land. Nor does the choice of the acute Colonel appear to 
have been a bad one. Charlotte was the daughter of 
Charles Louis, the Duke of Mirow, the second son of the 
Duke of Mecklenburg Strelitz. She was born in May, 1744. 
She had, in her earlier youth, been instructed by Madame 
de Grabon, who has generally been termed the German 
Sappho. She had been carefully educated by Dr. Geitzner 
in Lutheran theology, in natural history, and other useful 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A ICING-. 21 

sciences. She was a good linguist, a good musician, and 
an admirable dancer. She was a young lady of sense and 
spirit \ and to all these charms she added the less impalpa- 
ble ones of a very intelligent and pleasing countenance, 
and a figure of medium size, perfect in its mould and pro- 
portions. After the death of George II, and the accession 
of his grandson, the latter communicated to his council his 
approaching marriage in July, 1761. At first the announce- 
ment was not received with any great enthusiasm either by 
the Cabinet or by the people $ for Mecklenburg Strelitz was 
one of the most insignificant of the many insignificant 
principalities of Germany, and unworthy of the connection. 
But soon everybody became reconciled to an event to which 
indeed there could be no valid objection ; and Lord Har- 
court was deputed to visit Strelitz, and demand the hand of 
the young Princess in form. There were few or no difficul- 
ties in the way. A favorable answer was readily given. 
The treaty of marriage was signed at Strelitz on the 15th 
of August ) and the Earl of Hardwicke was sent to convey 
the intended Queen to England. He was accompanied by 
two ladies of extraordinary beauty, the Duchesses of Ham- 
ilton and Ancaster. The Princess was astonished, as she 
well might be, when she first beheld the fair companions of 
her voyage, and inquired with some apprehension if there 
were many such beautiful women in the English Court. 
These ladies had, in fact, no rivals in this respect in Eng- 
land 5 yet even in their presence the graceful and talented 
young bride of George III need not have been in the least 
degree discouraged. 

The bride traversed the channel in the fleet commanded 
by Admiral Anson. The passage was stormy but not dan- 
gerous. Having at length disembarked at Harwich, she 
commenced her journey toward London, accompanied by a 
large retinue of noble ladies and their attendants, who had 
been sent to meet her. She retained her buoyant spirits 



22 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

until she arrived in view of the Palace of St. James, where 
her public presentation was to take place. Here for the 
first time she became somewhat disconcerted and grew pale. 
The Duchess of Hamilton endeavored to cheer her, when 
she replied : " My dear Duchess, you may laugh, you have 
been married twice 5 but it's no joke to me P 

On the 8th of September, 1761, the marriage took place 
at near midnight, in the Chapel Eoyal at St. James. His 
love, Lady Sarah Lennox, was one of the bridesmaids, and 
it is said he cast frequent glances on her during the cere- 
mony — at the termination of which they all repaired to the 
drawing room. Walpole said Lady Sarah Lennox looked 
charming.* The King appeared to regret his choice, and, if 
his heart was known, was wishing his bride was Lady Sarah 
instead of the Princess. It was gently hinted to the Queen 
bride that the " King liked keeping early hours." She re- 
plied, " Quelle ne voulait passe couclier avec les poulets."] 

The bride showing no disposition for retiring, the Duke 
of Cumberland plainly intimated that the Princess Augusta 
and himself were becoming sleepy, the young Queen took 
the hint and expressed her readiness to retire. Shrinking 
from that repulsive ceremony of " bedding," she had stipu- 
lated that no one should accompany her to the bridal apart- 
ment but the Princess Dowager and her two German wait- 
ing maids, and no person admitted to the nuptial chamber 
but the King,! wishing to avoid the license which was usu- 
ally practised in the bridal chamber of royalty, which we 
have described in another part of this work. The following 
day at the levee, the King having remarked to Lord Hard- 
wicke that it was a u very fine day." " Yes, sire," said the 
old Chancellor, with a significant smile, u and it was a very 
fine night." Even Lord Bute, despite his natural pompos- 
ity, let off a quizzical jest at His Majesty. His daughter, 

*"Walpole's letters, vol. 3, page 434. f Jesse's Reign of George III. 

% Warpole's Reign of George III. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 23 

Lady Margaret Stuart', had been married but the day before 
to Sir James Lowther. " My Lord Oxford," said he to the 
King, " has laid a bet that your Majesty will be a father 
before Sir James." " Tell my Lord Oxford," said the King, 
" that I shall be glad to go him halves." It may be re- 
marked here that the King would have been winner had his 
offer been accepted.* His marriage proved very prolific, 
which the overburdened taxpayers of England afterwards 
discovered to their cost. 

The marriage life of George III was quite regular. His 
amours thereafter he managed to keep secret, with the ex- 
ception of that with the Dowager Duchess Hamilton, who 
appears to have for awhile alienated his affections from his 
lawful spouse. He could not conceal his wanderings from 
his legitimate Court, and his wife soon mistrusted him, and 
discovered the beautiful cause in the person of the lovely 
widow of the Duke of Hamilton. This lady had won the 
hand of James, the Duke, when she was simply the beauti- 
ful and attractive little Elizabeth. Dunning. She was at 
this period even more attractive as a widow than she was 
as aJbelle, and, consequently, drew over to her for awhile 
the affections of the King. The Queen manifested her jeal- 
ousy, and it was remarked by the Court. f No doubt the 
well applied Caudle Lectures by the injured spouse was the 
cause of his sudden reformation in this respect. After chil- 
dren were born to him, and he found a large family growing 
up around him, he became a patron of good morals, and en- 
deavored to reform the morals of the higher dignitaries of 
the Church, as the English clergy, from the Bishops down, 
had, from the examples of their sovereigns, become very 
loose in their morals, and many of the stipendiaries of the 
Church were known to keep mistresses, to the great scandal 
of religion. He wrote a letter to Dr. Cornwallis, the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, and a relative of our American his- 

* Walpole. f Jesse's Reign of George III. 



24 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

toxical character of " surrender " fame, regarding the Bac- 
chanalian scenes carried on at the Archiepiscopal Palace of 
Lambeth : "I hold these levities and vain dissipations/' he 
wrote, "as utterly inexpedient to pass in a residence for 
many centuries devoted to divine studies and religious re- 
tirement $ and from the dissatisfaction I hold these impro- 
prieties, not to speak in harsher terms, I trust you will sup- 
press them immediately." 

As were the prelates, such in a great measure were the 
inferior clergy, some stooping even to theft. At a drawing 
room held by the Queen in 1777, Cumberland, who was 
present, asserts that a nobleman had his Order, which was 
encircled with diamonds worth seven hundred pounds, 
snatched from his ribbon 5 and he believed the theft to 
have been committed by a clergyman who stood near him, 
but one of such high position that he did not dare charge 
him with it. Another attempt was made on a similar oc- 
casion to tear off the diamond guard of the sword of the 
Prince of Wales, which was of great value ; and in this in- 
stance the known but unpunished offender was a clergy- 
man of the Established Church. Dr. Dodd received no 
mercy from the King, when convicted of forgery and con- 
demned to death, inasmuch as the monarch was resolved to 
make an impressive example of him to the recreant order of 
men to whom he belonged. Their notorious vices and un- 
worthiness led, to the beneficent reforms introduced by Wes- 
ley and Whitfield, and which endure to the present day. 




THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 25 



WUyUx Swa- 



the eldest son of George III, the infamous Prince of 
Wales, was born at St. James' on the 12th of August, 1762. 

It will little interest Americans (for whom this book is 
written) to enter into a full detail of the genealogical history 
of the house of Brunswick to prove his royal descent from 
" Caius CEtius, the old Eoman who lived some time about 
the fourth century," or either to follow the old chronicles 
back to the time of Charlemagne to prove his noble blood, 
when every page of the following record goes to prove him, 
when weighed in the scales of moral humanity, to be not 
only an ordinary man, but in the words of a contemporane- 
ous historian, a " beast of a man."* Although, as is well 
known, the inhabitants of monarchial countries attach great 
importance to hereditary rank and descent, and that a 
man without a genealogical tree is without a character ; in 
our liberal Bepublic we care little for this — the tree we 
judge only by its fruits. Americans care not who a man's 
remote ancestors were, or how far into the misty depths of 
the past the bifurcation of ^his-genealogical tree may ex- 
tend, so long as the individual himself is honest and up- 
right, and suited to tEifstation, either public or private, he 
may be called to occupy. 

However, the history of the immediate progenitors of our 
subject, George Guelph, is part of the history of our own 
country, for he it was that our forefathers in the Declara- 
tion of Independence stamped asa" Prince whose charac- 
ter was marked by every act which may define a tyrant, and 
unfit to be the ruler of a free people." 

2 * P'crcival's Refle'ctions. 



26 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

As the public and political acts of George III bearing 
upon the history of our country are pretty well defined in 
our nation's documents, and well known to every American 
schoolboy, we propose here to enter a little into the private 
history of this scion of the house of Brunswick which is not 
so well known. 

George Guelph is given no prominence in the history of 
the United States, when he is, in fact, the first cause of our 
becoming an independent nation. When old King George 
III awakened to the fact, by the birth of his first child, that 
he was likely to have a large and expensive family, also that 
the new Prince must have a proper " royal establishment," 
and that this would take money, and not wishing to draw 
upon his own civil list, he inquired of his new Lord Chancel- 
lor, George Grenville, who had just assumed the powers of 
his office, how money could be procured, what new taxes 
could be imposed on his now over taxed subjects. Grenville, 
in considering the question, replied, the nation could not 
bear any further burdens, and proposed to the King to im- 
pose a tax on his American colonies. "CasselFs Illustrated 
History" says that " Grenville, a plain man, of no remarkable 
talent, thus inaugurated the first remarkable act of his ad- 
ministration by passing the Stamp Act, by which he lost 
us America." So none of the millions squandered by that 
profligate Prince of Wales, as detailed in this work, was 
ever wrung from Americans. Our brave ancestors spent 
" millions for defence " in a bloody war, but u not one cent 
for tribute " towards a u royal establishment." 

When troubles with the American colonies were culmin- 
ating, the old King was determined to have money, and in- 
sisted on his ministers in demanding from Parliament a 
half million of pounds ($2,500,000) to defray some extra 
debts incurred by the birth of our subject and his royal 
brothers, who required " royal establishments " to aid them 
in breathing the free air of this world. The " civil list " at 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 27 

this time, without the royal perquisites, was eight hundred 
thousand pounds a year, but the King and Queen, with 
most reckless disregard of economy, lavished the gold, 
wrung from the toiling taxpayers, on all sides in their 
luxurious existence. It was shown for the one item of the 
Royal coach there had been charged seven thousand five 
hundred and sixty two pounds !* His faithful Commons 
voted him the amount. Only think of the American Presi- 
dent sending into Congress a demand for this item alone, 
among others : " For coach and horses," thirty-seven 
thousand eight hundred and ten dollars ! ! What would 
the opponents of " back grab n say to that ? 

To Americans the following description of a royal ac- 
couchement will undoubtedly prove interesting, having been 
drawn from the public prints of the time : 

Agreeably to the state of etiquette, which has always 
been observed on the accouchement of the Queen of Eng- 
land ever since the birth of the son, or pretended son, of 
James II, the great officers of state are always summoned 
to attend the birth of a royal infant ; and on the occasion 
of the birth of George IY there were present the Princess 
Dowager of Wales, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the 
Duke of Devonshire, the Duke of Rutland 5 the Lords 
Hardwicke, Huntingdon, Talbot, Halifax, Bute, Masham 
and Cantalupe, and all the ladies of the bedchamber, and 
the maids of honor. The whole party assembled in a room 
adjoining to that of the Queen, having the door open 
leading into it — the lords arranging themselves at the 
greatest possible distance — the ladies having no other re- 
striction placed upon them than to preserve a solemn si- 
lence, the accomplishment of which was a task of almost 
insuperable difficulty. Delicacy had, in those days, so far 
the ascendancy that the obstetrical art was principally 
practised by females, and on this occasion the Queen was 

* Cassell's History of England. 



28 THE PRIVATE LITE OP A KING. 

delivered by Mrs. Stephen, Dr. Hunter being in attendance 
amongst the ladies of the bedchamber and maids of honor, 
in case of his j:>rofessional assistance being required. 

Her Majesty was delivered exactly at twenty-four min- 
utes after seven o'clock P. M., having been in labor above 
two hours. A messenger was immediately despatched to 
the King with the pleasing intelligence, and so delighted 
was he with the news that he presented the bearer of it 
with $2,500 (£500,) which, of course, came out of the 
pockets eventually of the good taxpayers of the realm. 

The Privy Council assembled with all possible despatch, 
and it was ordered that a settled form of prayer for the 
Queen's safe delivery should be prepared by his Grace the 
Archbishop of Canterbury, to be used within the Bills of 
Mortality on the following Sunday, and throughout the 
King's dominions the Sunday after it had been received by 
the respective ministers. 

Nothing can mark more strongly the character of a mon- 
archical nation than the periodical publications that were 
put forth on this occasion. The Queen refused all medical 
assistance from the other sex, and was attended by a Mrs. 
Stephen. The obstetric science was then but faintly under- 
stood, for Dr. Denman, of London, had not written his 
famous work on midwifery; and reference was always 
made to the ancients from Aristotle to Galen, and from 
him to the doctors of the Sorbonne. Hence the press had 
teemed with numerous speculations, or rather prophecies, 
upon her Majesty, some not very delicate ; and whilst a few 
denied her being enceinte, others entered into peripherical 
phenomena, and pretended to predict the sex and future 
destinies of the child. Mrs. Draper, who was the royal 
nurse, had published a pamphlet upon the subject; but 
such matter would not be tolerated amongst us at present, 
and we must dismiss such subjects as features of an age 
gone by. Slander was mixed up with these publica- 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 29 

tions ; and when the Queen appeared at the installation of 
the Garter at St. George's Hall, Windsor Castle, four 
weeks after her accouchement, several violent articles were 
written upon the indelicacy of so early an appearance; 
whilst she, on the other hand, was defended by her friends, 
upon the plea of the customs of her country being different 
from those of England. A man who then ruled London, 
with respect to opinion, as powerfully as the King himself 
— the Eev. Mr. Simpson — preached against the Queen's in- 
delicacy ; but he was answered in a pamphlet by the Eev. 
Dr. Yandergucht, who cited all that could be found upon 
the subject from the Bible : and although any quotation of 
that description was then omnipotent, still the doctor's 
Dutch name was mistaken by the vulgar for German — he 
was considered as a partisan of the Germans, and met with 
very severe usage from the populace. 

The birth of the Prince diffused a general joy throughout 
the nation, and congratulatory addresses were voted to " their 
Majesties" by both Houses of Parliament, by the city of Lon- 
don, the two Universities, and the other great bodies corpo- 
rate of the kingdom. We shall not, however, occupy our 
pages with the transcription of any of these addresses, for, 
considered as mere matters of form, they are unworthy of 
notice, and as the vehicles of the most fulsome adulation 
and bombastic panegyric they would be the objects of 
ridicule and contempt to American readers. 

The young Prince soon became the object of general solicit- 
ation, and for the gratification of the public it was announced, 
before he was twelve days old, that his Eoyal Highness was 
to be seen at St. James', from one o'clock till three, on draw- 
ing room days. The crowd of ladies whom this offer 
tempted to flock to Court to see the royal infant and taste 
her Majesty's caudle and cake soon became immense ; the 
daily expense for cake alone was estimated at $200 (£40,) 
and the consumption of wine was greater than could have 



30 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINGt. 

been expected. All persons of title and fashion were per- 
mitted to enter the sacred presence of royalty' and gaze 
upon the little scion of Brunswick, but under important rules 
and restrictions, laid down by the Grand Master of Cere- 
monies, partly as follows: " Visitors must step with great 
caution and as noiselessly as possible." "Visitors must not 
touch the royal infant." For the better protecting his sacred 
person from the vulgar contact, a kind of Chinese screen was 
set up across the room, through the lattice of which only 
were the visitors allowed to gaze on his sacred person. " Oh, 
ain't he beautiful !" " How sweet !" " Oh, how I would like 
to kiss him !" * and other suppressed exclamations were heard 
from the admiring female visitors. 

How little did those ladies imagine that that little bundle 
of humanity would eventually become one of the greatest 
seducers of their sex the world has ever known. 

The eldest son of the King of Great Britain is known as 
the Prince of Wales, but he is not bom to the title, but is 
always created such after his birth by " royal letters patent." 
So, on the fifth day after the birth of little George, a grand 
ceremony was had for the investiture. We will not go into 
all the details of the ceremony, but merely state that the 
" gold verge," " cap coronet," " great seal," " gold ring," etc., 
etc., did their dujby on the occasion, and the young infant 
was duly created Prince of Wales. 

It may be as well to state here the titles he was bom to. 
Besides being the heir apparent to the crown of Great Brit- 
ain, he was likewise hereditary Steward of Scotland, Duke 
of Rothsay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, and Duke 
of Cornwall. This last title is very important, as the rev- 
enues of the Duchy of Cornwall are very extensive, and the 
Prince of Wales is entitled to them from the day of his birth. 

It may be interesting to American citizens of Irish birth 
to know that among the numerous titles of the Prince of 
Wales he enjoys no Irish honors or titles. 

* Life of George IV. London. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 31 

On the 18th of September the royal infant went through 
the important ceremony of baptism in the great council 
chamber of the Palace. The ceremony was performed by 
the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Dukes of Cumberland, of 
Devonshire, and the Duke of Mecklenburg Strelitz being 
godfathers; the Dowager Princess of Wales being god- 
mother. Here certainly was enough of paternity and ma- 
ternity to have kept this royal child in the paths of rectitude 
and virtue in his more mature age; but they must have 
been sadly deficient in carrying out the behoofs of their 
office as prescribed by the rules of the Church and exempli- 
fied in the after life of their royal godchild. 

The important consideration of settling the royal infantile 
establishment was now determined by the appointment of 
the following persons to office as follows : 

Lady Charlotte Finch, Grand Governess. 

Mrs. Henrietta Coultworth, Deputy Governess. 

Mrs. Scott, Dry Nurse. 

Mrs. Chapman, Necessary Woman. 

Mrs. Dodson, First Eocker. 

Jane Simpson, Second Rocker. 

Who was the cantatrice or chanter of the lullabies, history 
saith not, but ive opine that the most necessary and import- 
ant of these offices, when taking the age of our illustrious 
subject into consideration, must, have been the " necessary 
woman." 

Royalty robs a mother of one of her sweetest enjoyments, 
it being contrary to royal etiquette for a Queen of England 
to suckle her own child. 

Just before the Prince became three years of age, he was 
called upon to go through his first official act ; accordingly 
he was tutored and drilled for a week or so in advance. He 
was to reply to a public address presented from the Society 
of Ancient Britons, who were to appear before him to solicit 



32 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

his patronage for an institution of charity attached to their 
principality, from which he derives his title. Prince of Wales. 

After much drilling and rehearsing he learned to speak his 
little piece ; so, on St. David's Day, the 1st of March, 1765, 
the governors, officers, and members of the august Society 
of Ancient Britons appeared before his royal infantile pres- 
ence and presented the address. "Your royal parents/ 
said that important document, u remember no period of their 
lives too early for doing good ; and when a few years shall 
have called forth your virtues into action, your Eoyal High- 
ness may perhaps reflect with satisfaction upon your faith- 
ful Ancient Britons thus laying themselves at your feet." 

The Prince then stood on his little feet and replied: 
" Gentlemen, I thank you for this mark of your duty to the 
King, and wish prosperity to the charity." The journals of 
the day announced with a great flourish that the noble 
Prince delivered his reply with great dignity and propriety, 
and that his action was admirable. At the conclusion of 
these interesting infantile ceremonies, the little Prince was 
handed a purse containing $500 (£100,) which he donated 
to the treasury of the " Society of Ancient Britons." 

In 1765 the Prince was made a Knight Companion of the 
" most noble Order of the Garter," and in 1766 was inocu- 
lated for the smallpox. 

It was on the 25th of October, 1769, that the Prince of 
"Wales, then only in his seventh year, with his brothers and 
sister, the Bishop of Osnaburg (the Duke of York,) Prince 
William, and the Princess Boyal, held their first drawing 
room ; the latter was only then in her second year ; and cer- 
tainly it could only have entered into the head of a German 
Princess, who had been accustomed to infantine drawing 
rooms, to place the children of the King of England in such 
a truly ridiculous situation. The historians of those days 
inform us that the young Princes received the company 
with the utmost grace and affability ; but, on the other hand, 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 33 

the caricaturists were not idle, for there is a caricature in 
existence, in which, in ridicule of these infantine drawing 
rooms, the Prince of Wales is made to enter the room with 
a kite on his back, the Bishop of Osnaburg with his hobby 
horse between his legs, Prince William is spinning his top, 
and the Princess Eoyal is behind a screen receiving some 
very indispensable assistance from her nursery woman. The 
ridicule with which these drawing rooms was received soon 
induced the Queen to discontinue them ; and, indeed, Her 
Majesty found it a difficult matter to persuade either the 
Prince of Wales or the Bishop of Osnaburg to attend them; 
and on one occasion, when the royal youths were engaged 
in a game of cricket, and were called upon to dress for the 
drawing room, they returned a message that the company 
were to wait till the game was over. 

A Prince is not educated like a common individual. He 
must have certain peculiar preceptors, who receive dictum 
from the King. Parliament appears to have nothing to do 
with this all important office, although it can limit the set- 
tlement of the crown and arrange marriages of the royal 
family. The education of Princes is a prerogative of the 
King, of which the two Houses have no right to interfere. The 
education of the Prince of Wales was conducted on a plan 
calculated to make him both a respectable and a polished 
scholar, to outward appearance ; but, on the other hand, it 
was not calculated to make him a wise Prince or a great 
monarch. Dr. Markham was his accredited preceptor, and 
Lord Bruce was appointed his governor. Some changes 
were afterwards made. Dr. Markham was succeeded by Dr. 
Hurd ; afterwards he had Dr. Jackson, and Markham was 
dismissed. There was some difference between the gover- 
nor and the tutor as to the studies of the royal pupil. The 
plan of the Prince's education as followed by Dr. Markham 
was laid down by the King himself. It was conducted with 
too much austerity — with too little regard to the great prac- 

2* 



34 THE PRIVATE LIFE OP A KING. 

tical principles of common life. The moment the education 
was considered completed, and the Prince freed from his 
studies, he felt as a prisoner released from confinement, and, 
like any boy out of school, he was wild and eccentric. He 
had been unwisely debarred from the natural pleasures of 
youth, and when free plunged- headlong into the pleasures 
and dissipations of London society. 

^Upon finishing his education, and being released from the 
control of his tutors, a number of persons of a perfectly op- 
posite character were in waiting to celebrate his freedom, 
and administer to his gratification and delight. Among 
them the nation must ever lament were certain individuals 
celebrated for the splendor of their talents and vices, and 
in their earliest intercourse with the Prince much more 
ready to corrupt his morals by the one than to enlarge and 
elevate his mind by the other. 

Here we catch the first glimpse of the cause of those 
painful misunderstandings which took place between the 
then sovereign and the heir apparent. The early friends 
of the Prince were in avowed opposition to the Government, 
and they soon infused their hatred of ministers and their 
jealousy of the King into the unsuspecting mind and sus- 
ceptible heart of their illustrious companion. On political 
grounds alone the King had reason to be incensed at their 
influence over his son 5 but when to this we add the moral 
injury they were inflicting on one whom the pious father 
wished above all things to train for God and his country, 
we cannot wonder that, wounded by their arts on his royal, 
his paternal, and his Christian feelings, he should have set 
his face against the men, and treated with rigor the son 
who had made them his companions. 

It cannot, however, be denied that on those points in 
which the preceptors of the Prince were answerable their 
duty was well performed. On attaining the years of ma- 
jority he was unquestionably the most accomplished young 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 35 

Prince in Europe. His knowledge of the ancient languages 
was correct and extensive, and of the modern dialects. 
He could converse with ease and fluency in French, Ger- 
man, and Italian. His attainments as a polite scholar were 
so universally admitted that it is unnecessary here to dwell 
upon them further than to observe that the best English 
writers, particularly the poets, were familiar to His Royal 
Highness ; and that on all subjects relating to belles lettres 
there were few critics who possessed a purer taste or a more 
refined judgment. 

In those accomplishments, which may be deemed rather 
elegant than necessary, he had made a proficiency equally 
striking. He had cultivated the science of music with great 
success, and, considered with that indulgence which is 
always due to an amateur, he excelled both as a vocal and 
as an instrumental performer. His taste in the fine arts 
has in many instances been strikingly exemplified, and the 
interest which he took, at a subsequent period, in their 
prosperity may be judged from the munificence with which 
his artists have ever been rewarded. 

The manner in which the birthday of Prince George was 
celebrated at Windsor, in the year 1781, is thus described 
in a letter from Windsor : 

" We had the most brilliant company here yesterday of 
any this season. Great numbers of the nobility and gentry 
of both sexes came to compliment their Majesties and the 
royal family on the Prince's birthday. In the evening 
the terrace was so crowded that the King, Queen, and 
Princesses did not walk more than half an hour, and then 
went into their apartments. 

" The public celebration of this day of festivity did not 
commence till this morning, when there was a review in the 
park and firing volleys. About two o'clock the royal family 
went from the Queen's house to an apartment in one of the 
towers, whilst the terrace underneath was crowded with 



36 THE PRIVATE LIFE OP A KING. 

the greatest number of nobility of both, sexes seen together 
for many years. The Yorkshire Volunteers, commanded by 
Lord Fauconberg, were drawn up on King Charles' Bowl- 
ing Green about three o'clock, and fired a>feu dejoie, which 
was followed by three cheers from the battalion, who imme- 
diately formed into files and marched off with their colors 
lowered in honor of the royal presence. 

" After this, their Majesties and the Prince of Wales, 
with the rest of the royal family, proceeded to St. George's 
Hall, where they dined with about eighty of the nobility ; 
and in the evening there was a grand ball at the Castle, 
which did not break up till five the next morning, and was 
remarkably brilliant and crowded. Windsor was also illu- 
minated at night, and the day closed with bonfires and 
other demonstrations of joy. 

" The entertainment was upon the same plan as those 
given by the King at the Queen's Palace, with this differ- 
ence, that the three tables were in one room, viz., St. 
George's Hall. The King and Queen, Prince Edward, 
Princess Royal, Princess Augusta, and Princess Elizabeth, 
Duchess of Argyll, Ladies Effingham, Egremont, and Wey- 
mouth, supped' at a small table facing the company under 
a canopy. 

"At the second table was the Prince of Wales, Lady 
Augusta Campbell on one side, and one of the young 
Ladies Dunmore on the other side ; the Duke of Cumber- 
land, Duke of Dorset, Marquis of Graham, and all the 
young nobility that danced. 

" At the third table were the Dukes of Queensberry and 
Montagu, Lords North, Boston, Weymouth, Southampton, 
etc.; Ladies Clarendon, Boston, Fauconberg, North, Dun- 
more, Courtown, etc. There were thirty-four covers at each 
table. 

"The Prince of Wales danced with Lady Augusta Camp- 
bell ; the Duke of Cumberland danced some part of the 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KLNO. 37 

night with the Princess Boyal, and the remaining part 
with the young Lady Duninore ; Prince Edward danced 
with the Princess Augusta ; and the Duke of Dorset with 
the Princess Boyal. Their Majesties, etc., supped at 
twelve o'clock, and retired at five." 

One of the greatest beauties of the British Court, and 
who, consequently, was the chosen favorite of the Prince 
of Wales, assisted at this fSte. This individual was Lady 
Sarah Campbell, the selected partner of the Prince at the 
table and the ball $ and, perhaps, a more angelic creature 
never captivated his affections. The assiduities which the 
heir apparent to the crown may show towards any particu- 
lar lady have something in them of a wholly different char- 
acter than those which pass between individuals whose 
rank and station are equal 5 the former can have only one 
object in view — the possession of the person — for the usual 
expectation of any matrimonial union resulting from the 
familiar and affectionate intercourse cannot for a moment 
be entertained ; and, therefore, to the strictly virtuous 
female, whom no blandishments, however royal, can divert 
from the_ path of modesty, cannot be received but with the 
most repulsive indignation. The keenness of the female 
eye sees at once the aim, where any great disparity of rank 
exists $ and to the honor of Lady Sarah Campbell, be it 
said, that she did see the aim of the Prince's attentions; 
and, although she might have loved-*-and if one line in the 
composition of Prince George be true, she might have 
received and given " the stolen kiss," yet all beyond was 
preserved as pure as the pearl taken from its native shell. 
She saw the danger with which she was surrounded; the 
chain was not yet so strongly entwined around her but it 
might be broken. She did break it, and became the wife 
of one of the most amiable noblemen of the day. He 
essayed the poetic element on this lovely being, but signally 
failed ; here are some of his sentiments : 



38 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

Oh 1 Campbell, the scene of to-night 

Has open'd the wound of my heart ; 
It has shown me how great the delight 

Which the charms of thy converse impart. 
I've known what it is to he gay, 

Iv'e re veil' d in joy's fleeting hour, 
I've wish'd for the close of the day, 

To meet in a thick woven bower. 

'Twas there that the soft stolen kiss, 

'Twas there that the throb of our hearts, 
Betray'd that we wish'd for the bliss 

Which love, and love only, imparts. 
But fate will those hearts oft dissever, 

By nature design'd for each other; 
But why should they part? and forever ! 

And forced their affections to smother. 

How short and how blissful the hour 

When round each lone hamlet we .stray'd 
When passion each heart could o'erpower, 

And a sigh the sweet feelings betray'd. 
Oh whence is that glance of the mind 

Which scenes that are past oft renews : 
Which shows them, in colors refined, 

With fancy's bright ghtt'ring hues ? 

Now, sweet be thy slumbers, my friend, 

And sweet be the dreams of thy soul ; 
Around thee may angels attend, 

And visions of happiness roll. 
* * * * 

This was one of his first failures in the field of love. 

A very alarming circumstance happened at this time to 
the Prince, which might have been attended with the most 
disastrous consequences. He was invited to dine with 
Lord Chesterfield at his house at Blackheath, -when the 
whole party having drank too freely, they set their inven- 
tion to work as to what acts of mischief they could commit. 
Amongst other acts, one of the party let loose a large dog 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 39 

of a ferocious disposition, which immediately flew at one of 
the footmen who was looking on, tore one of his arms in a 
shocking manner, and nearly strangled a horse. The whole 
company now formed themselves into a compact body and 
assailed Towzer, who defended himself with great resolu- 
tion, and he had just caught hold of the skirts of the coat 
of the Prince, when one of the party, by a blow on the 
head, felled the dog to the ground. In the confusion, how- 
ever, the Earl of Chesterfield fell down the steps leading to 
his house, and very severely injured the back part of his 
head. The Prince, who scarcely knew whether he had 
been fighting a dog or a man, jumped into his phaeton as 
best he could, and there fell fast asleep, leaving the reins to 
his uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, who conducted him 
safely to town. He was drunk. 

The period when a y,oung man of illustrious rank and 
splendid fortune attains his majority forms an important 
epoch in his life. The young nobility of England, educated 
for the most part at schools and at the universities, when 
they come of age have generally acquired a tolerable share 
of experience in the world. Their companions in their out- 
set in life are generally those with whom they have associ- 
ated at school $ and their previous habits of thinking and 
acting for themselves, which the public seminaries are so 
admirably calculated to teach, fit them to enter on the 
great theatre of the world with credit and advantage. 

With our Prince, however, the case was wholly different 5 
he had been educated, indeed, under the ablest masters, 
and his progress in all the useful, and many of the orna- 
mental, branches of learning reflected equal honor on the 
diligence of the teachers and the capacity of the pupil ; but 
a knowledge of real life formed no part of the system of his 
education, and he made his entrance into public life under 
the disadvantage of having passed his youth in a state of 
seclusion and restraint. In order to give some idea of the 



40 THE PEIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

restrictions that were imposed on the Prince to prevent 
him mingling with society, we will relate the following 
anecdote: Abont a twelvemonth before he attained his 
legal majority, he received the invitations of some of the 
most distinguished nobility to make a tour through the 
country during the summer months, when their respective 
residences should be prepared for the reception of their 
illustrious guest. This invitation, as may be conceived, 
was eagerly accepted by the young Prince, and prepara- 
tions were actually made for his journey ; but, when the 
consent of his father was asked, the King refused to permit 
the design to be carried into execution. A system of 
restraint pushed to this extent could not fail to have an 
injurious influence on the conduct of the Prince at his first 
introduction to public life $ for, in proportion to the force 
of the restraint which was put upon him, so were his gay 
and wanton wanderings when he found himself eman- 
cipated from the trammels of all parental and scholastic 
authority. 

In one of these cases, when the consent of the King was 
asked, it was refused on the ground that His Majesty had it 
himself in contemplation to proceed on a party of pleasure, 
in which it was his royal will that the Prince should accom- 
pany him ' 7 and, with the view of giving to the Prince some 
real and substantial ground for his refusal, His Majesty pro- 
jected a trip to the ISTore, which took place in the month of 
August, 1781. The King and the Prince embarked in dif- 
ferent yachts, and as they proceeded down the river they 
were saluted as they passed Woolwich Warren by the ships 
in Long Eeach, and by Tilbury and Gravesend Ports, and 
about four in the afternoon they anchored in Sea Eeach. 
At five o'clock in the morning the yachts got under way, 
and arrived at Blackstakes about nine. The King and 
Prince went on shore, and visited the dockyard and 
new fortifications; about twelve they left the yard and 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 41 

returned to the Nore, where they were saluted by Vice- 
Admiral Parker and his squadron, who had at that moment 
come to an anchor. In the evening the King and the 
Prince went on board the Fortitude, on which ship the 
Admiral's flag was flying 5 His Majesty retired into the 
great cabin, where the captain and officers of the squadron 
were graciously received, and had the honor to kiss His 
Majesty's hand. The King and Prince, after visiting the 
several parts of the ship, returned to their yachts, and 
sailed for Chatham, where they arrived at nine o'clock the 
same day. 

This trip of the King was regarded at the time as merely 
undertaken to alleviate the pain of disappointment which 
the Prince experienced in not being allowed to accept of 
the invitation of the nobility to visit their country resi- 
dences, and it met with the ridicule which it deserved. A 
wit of the age thus describes it : 

" The King and Prince went to the Nore, 
They saw the ships and main ; 
The Prince and King they went on shore, 
And then came back again." 

Among the various accomplishments which distinguished 
the Prince, his skill as a musician was particularly conspic- 
uous. He was a very superior performer on the violoncello, 
having been instructed on that instrument by the celebrated 
Crossdill, whose unrivalled performances were~the theme of 
universal admiration, not only in England, but on every 
part of the continent. The merit of this eminent man was 
greatly aided by his intercourse with the polite world, and 
His Eoyal Highness was so well pleased with his gentle- 
manly deportment and elegant manners that he made him 
his companion, and honored him with his company at all 
his musical parties. Crossdill retired early from the pro- 
fession, but appeared at the coronation, being the only per- 
former who had attended the coronation of George HI, 



42 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINGK 

which he did as one of the choristers of Westminster 
Abbey. 

The Prince was not merely an instrumentalist, but he 
was also a vocal performer of no mean celebrity. Sir Wil- 
liam Parsons, the Master and Conductor of the King's 
Band, had the honor of instructing him in singing ; and it 
was very justly and happily said of him that he was not 
only a musician amongst princes, but a prince amongst 
musicians. He possessed not only a very good voice, but a 
very correct knowledge of the science. He was a very 
effective member of the Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Catch 
and Glee Club at the Thatched House Tavern, which he 
attended very frequently, conversing with the utmost famil- 
iarity with all the professors, and occasionally taking a part 
in the different compositions which were performed with 
great effect. He is the reputed author to the second verse 
to the glee of The Happy Fellow, " I'll ne'er," etc. ; and 
also of the additional verse to the song, " By the Gaily 
Circling Glass." which he was accustomed to sing in his 
convivial moments with great effect, when sometimes he 
would take a glass too much. 

Although he was so partial to Crossdill, it did not pre- 
vent his enjoying the gratification of hearing and appreciat- 
ing the merits of Cervetto, his talented competitor. Speak- 
ing of the performances of these eminent men, he was 
heard to say that the execution of Crossdill had all the fire 
and brilliancy of the sun, whilst that of Cervetto had all 
the sweetness and mildness of the moonbeam. It was his 
delight to attend the Italian Opera merely to hear Cer- 
vetto's accompaniments of the recitatives, which were ac- 
knowledged to be unrivalled. It was a banquet for the ear, 
he said, at which his appetite increased in proportion as it 
was administered to. At one of his last musical parties 
he commanded a trio of Corelli's to be performed on two 
violoncellos and a double bass by Cervetto, Dragonetti, and 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 43 

Schruin $ the latter was a musician attached to his house- 
hold, but whose health did not permit his accepting of any 
public engagement ; his great merits were therefore only- 
known to a few individuals of the profession, and to the 
illustrious individual who patronized him. 

The Prince was, with his royal brothers the Dukes of 
Cumberland and Cambridge, a director of the King's Con- 
cert of Ancient Music, at Hanover Square Booms, select- 
ing the music for the first night's performance, and pre- 
sided in the directors' box. He also patronized the annual 
benefit of the Eoyal Society of Musicians, given in conjunc- 
tion with the above mentioned concerts. He was also the 
patron of the Philharmonic Society, but, from some supposed 
personal slight which was shown to a lady who was then 
considered to stand the highest in his estimation, he at a 
future period withdrew his attendance from the Ancient 
Concerts, although he continued to support them by his 
subscriptions. 

At this period of his life of wraih we are now treating, 
he was the great and liberal sup . rter of all musical con- 
cerns : the Opera, the Pantheon, the Professional Concerts ; 
Vauxhall, and his favorite resort the Eotunda at Kanelagh 
Garden, which he was accustomed to visit almost every 
evening, enjoying the promenade, sourrounded by and dis- 
coursing with all the elegantes of fashion, and the object of 
universal admiration. Intriguing with pretty actresses of 
the popular theatres, he was often seen behind the scenes. 

But he was also the object of notoriety on another 
account, for he frequently degraded himself by being the 
principal in the broils which took place in the gardens ; and 
it is an accredited fact that he always had a number of reso- 
lute fellows at hand who were prepared to rescue him 
when he was likely to be overmatched. To this circum- 
stance may be attributed the patronage which he afterwards 
bestowed on the most celebrated pugilists of the day ; for 



44 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

he himself had been tutored by Angelo in the art of self- 
defence 5 and, urged on by the courage natural to his fam- 
ily, he was often led on to be the aggressor, especially if the 
object in dispute were a female. It was, however, generally 
in disguise that he committed these indiscretions ; and the 
masquerades, which were then more prevalent than at 
present, were the grand scenes of his libertinism. A ludi- 
crous circumstance has been mentioned connected with 
these frolics, which we have heard related by one of the 
parties present. At a masquerade in which the Prince 
appeared in the character of a Spanish grandee, accom- 
panied by four of his squires, he paid particular attention 
to a nun, who appeared to be under the protection of a 
youthful sailor. The assiduities on the part of the grandee 
were evidently unwelcome to the fair Ursuline, and the gal- 
lant tar threatened instantaneous chastisement if any fur- 
ther provocation was given ; the grandee, however, was not 
to be daunted, and he was very ably supported by his 
squires, who, boasting of the high and noble descent of their 
master, declared it to be an act of the greatest condescension 
in him to hold any parley with a common English sailor. 
Some high words arose, and some taunting expressions 
were used, tending to imply the opinion that the fair nun 
possessed no real pretensions to the Character which she 
had assumed. At last, some allusion having been made to 
the ladies of Portsmouth Point, the choler of the sailor 
could no longer brook the indignity, and a general row was 
the consequence. The constables were called in, and the 
disputants, in a posse, were marched oif to the watch house, 
the Spanish grandee leading the way in all his gorgeous 
finery. On arriving in the presence of the constable of the 
night, the culprits were called upon to declare their real 
characters. The grandee unmasked, as did also the sailor. 
— a Eh! William, is it youf exclaimed the former j 
" Eh ! George, is it you V exclaimed the latter. The 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 45 

sailor was no other than the future sovereign. The whole 
of the party burst into a loud laugh. The constable 
was confounded when he saw the heir apparent of the 
crown before himj he received a guinea, and the parties 
retired to complete the frolics of the night. 

The Prince was deeply concerned in the affairs of the 
Opera House, and after that theatre was unfortunately 
destroyed by fire, in 1785, he, from a sense of justice, sided 
with the old proprietors and creditors under Mr. Taylor, in 
consequence of the Marquis of Salisbury, then Lord Cham- 
berlain, aided by the Duke of Bedford, granting a license 
to O'Beilly for an Italian Opera at the Pantheon $ but, after 
this theatre was also destroyed, an accommodation was 
entered into through the influence of the Prince by which 
the license was again transferred to the old proprietors in 
the Haymarket, but saddled with an incumbrance of £30,000 
occasioned by losses incurred at the Pantheon. 

It is not perhaps generally known that a certain ambas- 
sador at one of the northern Courts owes his elevation prin- 
cipally to the skill which he displayed at Carlton House 
on the violoncello, the favorite instrument of the Prince ; 
it deserves to be mentioned as a rather singular coinci- 
dence that two of the most confidential servants of the 
Eegent owed their elevation to their skill in music. 

In entering upon that part of the life of the Prince when 
his illicit passions were first excited, we are fully aware 
that we are treading on delicate ground, and that the task 
is one of difficulty, so to steer the middle course as, on the ■ 
one hand, not to avert our view from the actual truth, and, 
on the other, not to overstep the bounds prescribed by 
modesty. 

The depraved appetite of the sensualist might be grati- 
fied by the revelations of certain scenes, which the general 
interests of society demand should be kept in the back- 
ground. 



46 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING-. 

It has been generally believed that Mrs. Eobinson was 
the first object of the Prince's affections. As regards pub- 
lic notoriety this was true, but his attachment to the beau- 
tiful maid of honor, Harriot Vernon, preceded this connec- 
tion. The commencement of this girl's Court life was as 
brilliant as its close was dark and dismal. She had not 
long been a resident of the household before her black eyes 
and sylphlike form attracted the notice of the Prince, who 
was just approaching his majority. The secluded manner 
in which he had been reared prevented for a time any 
familiar intercourse ; but it happened that the apartments 
which were allotted to the Prince looked exactly upon the 
rooms opposite, inhabited by the maids of honor, and it was 
here they first conversed, not by words but by signs, too 
expressive of the mutual feelings of their hearts to be mis- 
understood by either. It was through the medium of Lord 
Maiden, afterwards the Earl of Essex, who subsequently 
made such a conspicuous figure in the negotiation with the 
celebrated Perdita, that the great difficulty of obtaining a 
private interview with the illfated girl was overcome. 
After a prolonged correspondence, a clandestine meeting 
with the beautiful object of his passion was arranged in a 
retired part of Kew Gardens. A Marj)lot now appears 
upon the scene in the person of the Duke of York. The 
attachment of the two brothers was truly fraternal, and, 
except during those hours devoted to their studies, they 
were almost inseparable companions ; consequently, one of 
the greatest difficulties to be surmounted to prevent the 
detection of the lovers was how to conceal the amour from 
the Duke. This was, under the circumstances, impossible, 
and the Prince at last, trusting to the generosity of his 
brother, made him his confidant, and the sequel will show 
that it was this very circumstance which saved the lovers 
from detection. On the night appointed for the meeting, it 
was the opinion of the Prince and of Harriot that the sun 



THE PBIYATB LIFE OF A KING. 47 

moved slower towards the west than on any other evening ; 
but darkness came at last. Disguised in one of Lord Mai- 
den's great coats, the Prince hastened to the appointed 
spot. There was Harriot Vernon, the object of his ardent 
passion — of his second, and, as he conceived, of his unalter- 
able love. It was, however, perhaps the guardian spirit 
that was watching over the innocence of the lovely, yield- 
ing girl, that prompted the King just on that evening, and 
just at that critical moment, to command the presence of 
the Prince to play a game at chess ; but the Prince was not 
to be found. The Duke, anxious for the safety of his 
brother, hastened to the place of assignation. Never, 
perhaps, did the Prince regret his knowledge of the game at 
chess more than at this moment ; one more, and as sweet 
a rosebud as ever bloomed on its parent stem, would have 
lain defoliaged at his feet; but the barrier was broken 
down, although the citadel was not yet gained. The con- 
quest, however, was not long retarded ; it fell, after a faint 
resistance, and the triumph of the victor was complete. 

We will throw a veil over the future relations of this 
beautiful girl with the Prince, and we wish that we had it 
in our power wholly to exonerate him from the charge of 
neglect and indifference towards her after she had sacrificed 
to him all that was the most dear to her on earth. He had 
enjoyed the kernel, the shell was not worth his keeping, 
and he threw it away to hasten in search of another which 
had yet something of value to give him. The tears which 
■she shed are to his account, and the sighs which rose from 
her breaking heart must have often burst on his ear, and 
startled him in the midst of his midnight orgies, as the 
sound of some accusing spirit telling of the innocence which 
he had destroyed. 

That the royal parents were not entirely ignorant of the 
predilection of His Royal Highness for the beautiful maid 
of hoiior may be deduced from the following conversation 



48 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

wMcli took place between the Queen and the Prince ; and 
it was conjectured at the time that she purposely intro- 
duced the subject to give her an opportunity of letting the 
young libertine know that she was not so ignorant of his 
amours as he supposed her to be : 

" Well," said Her Majesty, taking it on the whole, the life 
of a maid of honor is a very monotonous one." 

" I perfectly agree with your Majesty," said the Prince ; 
" it must be dulness itself ; for what can be more vexatious 
to the spirits than to make one of a formal procession 
through the presence chamber to the drawing room j never 
to speak but when she is spoken to ; to make an occasional 
one of six large hoops in a royal coach ; to make up, at 
least, two new Court suits a year, and to aid the languor of 
an easy party at a side box in a royal play V 7 

" And, George, is there no other act which a maid of 
honor performs V 7 asked the Queen, significantly. 

" Oh yes," replied the Prince, " she goes to plays, con- 
certs, oratorios, etc., gratis 5 she has physicians without 
fees, and medicines without an apothecary's bill." 

" But you have forgotten one very material act," said the 
Queen. 

" V§ry likely," said the Prince, " the acts of a maid of 
honor formed no part of my education." 

"Then I will tell you one," said the Queen, "of which 
you have lately attained the knowledge, and that is, you 
were right when you said that a maid of honor goes to 
plays, and concerts, and oratorios gratis ; but you forgot to 
add that she also flirts with young Princes, and goes to 
meet them by moonlight — and is that also gratis V 7 

The Prince was completely confounded. " His Majesty 
requires your presence in the library," said the Queen. 
The Prince took the hint and retired, stung with mortifi- 
cation at the rebuke which he had received. 

A few days previous to this conversation Harriot Ver- 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 49 

non had ceased to be be an honorable maid ; the day sub- 
sequent to it she was no longer a maid of honor. 

It cannot be concealed that one of the greatest faults of 
the Prince at this time was his unbounded propensity to gal- 
lantry ; he had formed a connection with certain persons 
whose principal aim appears to have been to exalt him in 
his own opinion, and who servilely fell into all his views for 
their own aggrandizement. There was no act too grovelling 
nor too base to which they would not stoop to ingratiate 
themselves in his favor ; there was no virtue which they 
would not attempt to undermine to pander to his passions. 
It must be admitted that they were men of superior talents 
and education 5 but, as the companions of a Prince naturally 
addicted to libertinism, they were perhaps on that very ac- 
count the very worst men he could have selected as his associ- 
ates. In manners they were themselves debauched and 
profligate; in fortunes they were broken, and it was for the 
amendment of the latter that they looked up to the Prince. 
The period was fast approaching when a separate establish- 
ment was to be formed for the Prince commensurate to his 
rank as the heir apparent to the Crown; and the uncontrolled 
command of an income adequate to the support and dignity of 
that exalted station was looked forward to as the event which 
would enable them to enrich themselves, and this they well 
knew could be effected in proportion as they administered 
to the gratification of his governing passions. It was, there- 
fore, a part of their plan to entangle him in nets from which 
he could not extricate himself without their assistance; 
they became the confidants of his actions, the depositaries 
of his secrets ; and thus he insensibly fell into their power, 
which they knew how to wield to their advantage whenever 
the opportunity presented itself. 

The Prince was indebted to nature for a fine and hand- 
some person ; to art for a graceful exterior, and the most 
polished manners, ilis accomplishments were of the first 
s 



50 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KLNGc. 

order, but his flatterers were incessantly employed to make 
him believe that they were much greater than they really 
were. They inspired him with the belief that, in regard to 
female favors, he had only to ask and to receive ; and it 
must be acknowledged that a great number of the blooming 
women, who by their beauty adorned the Court of his 
mother, required little or no persuasion to concede to his 
wishes; they even appeared to be vain of the honor of 
being thought in possession of such personal attractions as 
to captivate the affections of such a Prince, and so far from 
repelling him in his advances, they encouraged him — in 
many instances anticipated him — and in all, gloried in their 
conquest. With every fresh amour his appetite appeared 
to be sharpened ; with the possession of each object his self 
opinion and his natural inconstancy increased. Like the 
bee, he roamed from flower to flower, sipped the honey, but 
never visited that flower again. That these amours often led 
him into some serious scrapes may be easily imagiued ; in 
many instances he had to contend with the jealousy of the 
husband or the wounded honor of the brother; or, perhaps r 
what was still more dangerous, and more liable to lead to 
an exposure, the envy and hate of other females who were 
aspiring to his affections, and who, consequently, could not 
endure the triumph of a rival. The following is one of those 
cases in which he was extricated by the mere presence of 
miud of one of his confidential associates who resided in 
the Palace : 

One of the most celebrated beauties of the British Court 
at this time was a lady whose husband enjoyed a situ- 
ation in the household, with apartments in the Palace 
as his residence. His avocations 'frequently required his 
personal attendance in town, and it was during these tem- 
porary visits that the Prince succeeded in ingratiating 
himself in the good opinion of his angelic wife; but it hap- 
pened that one of those events took place which the imps 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 51 

of mischief are sometimes so industriously and provokii%ly 
employed in bringing about for the purpose of marring the 
happiness of human beings when it is the least expected 
by them. The husband had on one occasion expressed his 
determination to remain in town during the night, as he did 
not expect that his business could be completed so as to 
admit of his return during the day. As might be expected, 
the advantage of this opportunity was not to be lost ; it was 
most anxiously embraced by both parties, and the sleeping 
apartment of the Prince was on that night to be tenant] ess. 
It happened, however, that the business of the gentleman 
was finished sooner than he expected ; and as the hour of 
midnight struck from the tower of the Palace, he was heard 
knocking at the outer door of his apartments in the court 
yard. Consternation filled the breasts of the hitherto happy 
lovers. To escape out of the room was imi)ossible j a detec- 
tion would be the inevitable ruin of one of the parties, and 
the indelible disgrace of the other. In this emergency no 
other resource was left but concealment in a small adjoining 
room, but then the confinement would continue the whole 
of the night, and the escape in the morning, when the whole 
of the household would be in motion, could not be expected 
to be accomplished without a discovery. But there was no 
alternative ; the Prince slipped on his clothes, and hurried 
into the adjoining room. He was, however, rescued from 
his distressing situation by the tact of Mr. Oholmondely, 
who in this amour was the confidant of the Prince, and 
who, on seeing the husband knocking at the door of his 
apartments, hurried towards him, and addressing him, said, 
"My dear fellow, I am truly rejoiced at your return; some- 
thing rather of an unpleasant nature has happened to the 
Prince, and he commanded me to desire your attendance in 
m y apartm ents immediately on your return. Accompany me, 
therefore, thither without delay, and I will hasten to apprise 
the Prince that you are in attendance." There was nothing 



52 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

by^any means improbable in the Prince being in some 
dilemma, as it was by no means a case of rarity, and the 
gentleman therefore most willingly accompanied Mr. Ghol- 
mondely to his apartments, where he was politely invited 
to repose himself until Mr. 0. went in search of the 
Prince. The sequel may be easily foreseen ; Mr. Cholmon- 
dely hastened to the lady's apartments, liberated the royal 
lover from his confinement, and hastening back to the hus- 
band, he informed him that the Prince had retired to rest ; 
and on the following morning he was informed that the 
business had been arranged without his interference. 

During the earlier years of the Prince his passions were 
vehement, and his temper unmanageable; but his generosity 
was unbounded, and his faults appeared to be those which 
observation and experience would materially alter. To 
literature or to science he was not, however 1 , much attached, 
and his amusements were chiefly those which unfortunately 
encouraged expensive habits and dangerous associations. 
Yet on the Prince the hopes of the nation were centred ; 
and, habitually kind and indulgent towards their rulers, the 
English viewed with a favorable eye the follies of his youth, 
and predicted a maturity of great and generous principles. 
The first event, however, which peculiarly attracted public 
attention, and which occurred prior to the Prince having 
attained his majority, tended, in some measure, to alter 
public opinion. On entering upon that subject a great 
degree of delicacy is required in the relation, not only in 
regard to the illustrious subject of these memoirs, but also 
as far as it respects the fame of one whose beauty, whose 
talents, and whose misfortunes cannot fail to interest every 
susceptible mind in her favor. There are few of our readers 
who have not heard or read of the lovely, beautiful, and in 
many respects highly talented Mrs. Mary Eobinson. This 
lady was the wife of a careless, neglectful, and profligate 
young man, who left her, with her fascinating, mental, and 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 53 

personal attractions, exposed to the gaze and blandishments 
of libertine rank and fashion. A separation had taken 
place between them ; and on an introduction to Garrick and 
Sheridan she was encouraged to adopt the stage as the 
means of her future subsistence. She accordingly came 
out at Drury Lane Theatre in the character of Juliet, in 
which she was eminently successful, and ultimately obtained 
an engagement, at a high salary, to enact the principal 
characters in tragedy and comedy. 

At the period when Mrs. Eobinson first attracted the 
attention of the Prince she was in the twenty -first and His 
Eoyal Highness in the nineteenth year of his age. She has 
herself left us the history of her intercourse with the Prince, 
written at a season when the heart deals with sincerity — in 
a season of sickness and dejection ; When the gay prospects 
of her early life had vanished from her eyes, and nothing 
remained for her but an existence, struggling with personal 
inconvenience, debility of frame, and unavailing regrets. 
The narrative which she has left us of this connection carries 
with it indubitable evidence of its veracity, and though 
some allowance must be made for one who speaks or, per- 
haps, to use a more appropriate phrase, who rather pleads 
in her own behalf, still an air of candor and sincerity so 
pervades that portion of her memoirs to which we more 
particularly allude that we feel no hesitation in using her 
own materials to give the narrative of the Prince's first 
public introduction into the world of gallantry ; we say pub- 
lic, for although it was well known that he had, like a wander- 
ing bee, been sipping the sweets from many an opening 
flower, and in which the bee too often left its sting behind ; 
yet it was only some of the airy spirits who hovered about 
the dark recesses of the gardens of Kew, or inhabited the 
sylvan haunts of Richmond's groves, who could tell the tale 
of how the lovely rosebud fell defoliaged, to wither and die 
neglected. With Mrs. Robinson, however, the Prince may 



54 THE PRIVATE LIFE OP A KINO. 

be said to have publicly exhibited himself in the temple of 
Yenus, and it must be admitted that his knee was never 
bent before a more lovely or more angelic votary of the god- 
dess, for she looked, without doubt, as she herself said in 
the play— 

" A bank for Love to lie and play on." 

Mrs. Robinson commences her narrative by stating that 
■" the play of ' The Winter's Tale' was this season commanded 
by their Majesties ; I never had performed before the royal 
family, and the first character in which I was destined to 
appear was that of Perdita. I had frequently played the 
part, both with the Ilermione of Mrs. Hartley and Miss 
Farren, but I felt a strange degree of alarm when I found 
my name announced to perform it before the royal family. 

" In the green room I was rallied on the occasion $ and 
Mr. Smith, whose gentlemanly manners and enlightened 
conversation rendered him an ornament to the profession, 
who performed the part of Leontes, laughingly exclaimed, 
i By Jove, Mrs. Robinson, you will make a conquest of the 
Prince, for to-night you look handsomer than ever.' I 
smiled at the unmerited compliment, and little foresaw the 
vast variety of events that would arise from that night's 
exhibition. 

" As I stood in the wing opposite the Prince's box, wait- 
ing to go on the stage, Mr. Ford, the manager's son, pre- 
sented a friend who accompanied him ; this friend was Lord 
Viscount Maiden, afterwards Earl of Essex. We entered 
into conversation during a few minutes, the Prince all the 
time observing us, and frequently si)eaking to Colonel (after- 
wards General) Lake, and to the Honorable Mr. Legge, 
brother to Lord Lewisham, who was in waiting on His Royal 
Highness. I hurried through the first scene, not without 
much embarrassment, owing to the fixed attention with 
which the Prince of Wales honored me ; indeed, some flat- 




-- = ss iM 

PEEDITA ROBINSON. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 55 

tering* remarks, which were made by His Royal Highness, 
met my ear as I stood near his box, and I was overwhelmed 
with confusion. , 

" The Prince's particular attention was observed by every 
one, and I was again rallied at the end of the play. On the 
last curtsey, the royal family condescendingly returned a 
bow to the performers ; but just as the curtain was falling 
my eyes met those of the Prince of Wales, and with a look, 
that I never shall forget, he gently inclined his head a second 
time 5 I felt the compliment, and blushed my gratitude. 

" During the entertainment, Lord Maiden never ceased 
conversing with me 5 he was young, pleasing, and perfectly 
accomplished. He remarked the particular applause which 
the Prince had bestowed on my performance ; said a thous- 
and civil things, and detained me in conversation till the 
evening's performance was concluded. 

" I was now going to my chair which waited, when I met 
the royal family crossing the stage ; I was again honored 
with a very marked and low bow from the Prince of Wales. 
On my return home, I had a party at supper, and the whole 
conversation centred in encomiums on the person, grace, and 
amiable manners of the illustrious heir apparent. 

u Within two or three days of this time, Lord Maiden paid 
me a morning visit. Mr. Kobinson was not at home, and I 
received him rather awkwardly. But his Lordship's embar- 
rassment far exceeded mine 5 he attempted to speak — 
paused — hesitated — apologized; I knew not why. He 
hoped I would pardon him 5 that I would not mention some- 
thing he had to communicate ; that I would consider the 
peculiar delicacy of his situation, and then act as I thought 
proper. I could not comprehend his meaning, and there- 
fore requested that he would be explicit. 

"After some moments of evident rumination, he trem- 
blingly drew a small letter from his pocket. I took it, and 
knew not what to say. It was addressed to Perdita. I 



56 THE RIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 

smiled, I believe rather sarcastically, and opened the billet. 
It contained only a few words, but those expressive of mere 
common civility ; they were signed Florizel.* 

u c Well, my Lord, and what does this mean?' said I, half 
angrily. 

u i Can yon not guess the writer V said Lord Maiden. 

u 'Perhaps yourself, my Lordf cried I, gravely. 

" l Upon my honor, no !' said the Yiscount, i I should not 
have dared so to address you on so short an acquaintance.' 

" I pressed him to tell me from whom the letter came. 
He again hesitated ; he seemed confused, and sorry that he 
had undertaken to deliver it. 1 1 hope I shall not forfeit 
your good opinion, 7 said he, c but ' 

" <• But what, my Lord?' 

u i I could not refuse, for the letter is from the Prince of 
Wales.' 

" I was astonished — I confess that I was agitated — but I 
was also somewhat skeptical as to the truth of Lord Mai- 
den's assertion ; I returned a formal and a doubtful answer, 
and his Lordship soon after took his leave. 

" A thousand times did I read the short but expressive 
letter ; still I did not implicitly believe that it was written 
by the Prince. I rather considered it as an experiment 
made by Lord Maiden either on my vanity or propriety of 
conduct. On the next evening the Viscount repeated his 
visit, we had a card party of six or seven, and the Prince of 
Wales was again the subject of unbounded panegyric. Lord 
Maiden spoke of His Royal Highness' manners as the most 
polished and fascinating, of his temper of the most engag- 
ing, and of his mind as the most replete with every amiable 
sentiment. * I heard these praises, and my heart beat with 
conscious pride, while memory turned to the partial but 

* Perdita and Florizel are two characters in "The Winter's Tale," and 
those who are acquainted with that comedy will easily trace the signifi- 
cation of these adopted names. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 57 

delicately respectful letter which I had received on the pre- 
ceding morning." 

For some months a confidential correspondence was carried 
on between these celebrated parties through the agency of 
Lord Maiden j and Mrs. Eobinson, amongst other tokens of 
inviolable regard, received the Prince's portrait in miniature, 
painted by Mr. Meyer. Within the case containing the 
picture was a small heart cut in paper, on one side of which 
was written, Je ne change qiCen mourant ; on the other, 
Unalterable to my Perdita through life. 

Mrs. Eobinson, who was an excellent judge of literary 
composition, speaking of this epistolary correspondence, 
says, " There was a beautiful ingenuousness in his language, 
a warm and enthusiastic adoration expressed in every let- 
ter, which interested and charmed me." 

At length, after many alternations of feeling, an interview 
with her royal lover was consented to by Mrs. Eobinson, 
and proposed, by the management of Lord Maiden, to take 
place at his lordship's residence in Dean street, May Fair, 
But the restricted situation of the Prince, controlled by a 
rigid governor, rendered this project of difficult execution. 
A visit to Buckingham House was then mentioned, to which 
Mrs. Eobinson positively objected, as a rash attempt, 
abounding in peril to her august admirer. Lord Maiden 
being again consulted, it was determined that the Prince 
should meet Mrs. Eobinson for a few moments at Kew, on 
the banks of the Thames, opposite to the old Palace, then 
the summer residence of the elder Princes. The account 
written by Mrs. Eobinson, in a letter to a friend, of the 
lovers' meeting, is couched in elegant and flowing language, 
and with much apparent ingenuousness. It deserves par- 
ticular attention in another point of view, as it presents us 
with a more faithful portrait of the manners and accom- 
plishments of the Prince of Wales at this period of his life. 
The date of this letter is in 1783. 

3* 



58 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

" At length an evening was fixed for this long dreaded 
interview. Lord Maiden and myself dined at the inn on the 
island, between Kew and Brentford. We waited the signal 
for crossing the river in a boat which had been engaged 
for the purpose. Heaven can witness how many conflicts 
my agitated heart endured at this most important moment ! 
I admired the Prince, I felt grateful for his affection. He 
was the most engaging of created beings. I had corres- 
ponded with him for many months, and his eloquent let- 
ters, the exquisite sensibility which breathed through every 
line, his ardent professions of adoration, had combined to 
shake my feeble resolution. The handkerchief was waved 
on the opposite shore, but the signal was, by the dusk of 
the evening, rendered almost imperceptible. Lord Maiden 
took my hand, I stepped into the boat, and in a few min- 
utes we landed before the iron gates of old Kew Palace. 
The interview was but for a moment. The Prince of Wales 
and the Duke of York, "then Bishop of Osnaburg, were 
walking down the avenue. They hastened to meet us. A 
few words, and those scarcely articulate, were uttered by 
the Prince, when a noise of the people approaching from the 
Palace startled us. The moon was now rising, and the idea 
of being overheard, or of His Royal Highness being seen out 
at so unusual an hour, terrified the whole group. Afrer a few 
more words of the most affectionate nature uttered by the 
Prince, we parted, and Lord Maiden and myself returned 
to the island. The Prince never quitted the avenue, nor 
the presence of the Duke of York, during the whole of this 
short meeting. Alas ! my friend, if my mind was before 
influenced by esteem, it was now awakened by the most 
enthusiastic admiration. The rank of the Prince no longer 
chilled into awe that being who now considered him as the 
lover and the friend. The graces of his person — the irre- 
sistible sweetness of his smile, the tenderness of his melo- 
dious yet manly voice — will be remembered by me till every 
vision of this changing scene shall be forgotten." 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 59 

It was at this period that the Prince requested Mrs. Bob- 
inson to sit to a celebrated artist for her picture — a request 
which she complied with, although not without some reluct- 
ance. The Prince accordingly deputed Stroehling to exe- 
cute the task, and he completed the beautiful paintiug 
from which many engravings have been taken. At the 
Prince's particular desire, the doves were introduced into 
the picture in allusion to FlorizeVs own words in the play : 

So turtles pair 



That never meant to part. 

When the rupture between the lovers took place, and which 
is alleged to have taken place on the part of the Prince on 
account of some alleged infidelity committed by the lady, 
the Prince would no longer allow the picture to adorn his 
cabinet, but made a present of it to one of his household. 
"Many and frequent were the interviews," continues Mrs. 
Kobinson, " which afterwards took place at this romantic 
spot ; our walks sometimes continued till past midnight ; 
the Duke of York and Lord Maiden were always of the 
party; our conversation was composed of general topics. 
The Prince had from his infancy been wholly secluded, and 
naturally took most pleasure about the busy world, its 
manners and pursuits, characters and scenery. [Nothing 
could be more delightful or more rational than our mid- 
night perambulations. I always wore a dark colored habit ; 
the rest of our party generally wrapped themselves up in 
great coats, to disguise themselves, excepting the Duke of 
Tork, who almost universally alarmed us by the display of 
a buff coat, the most conspicuous color he could have 
selected for an adventure of this nature. The polished and 
fascinating ingenuousness of His Eoyal Highness' manners 
contributed not a little to enliven our promenades. He 
sang with exquisite taste, and the tones of his voice break- 
ing on the silence of the night have often appeared to my 
entranced senses like more than mortal melody." 



60 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

These poetical flights would appear, perhaps, ornamental 
in " Hubert de Sevrae," or any other romance which the 
beautiful and highly gifted Perdita may have written ; but 
these songs of His Royal Highness are not in exact keeping 
with the extraordinary secrecy by which these nocturnal 
meetings appear to have been characterized. The royal 
lover was in momentary dread of a discovery, and a song 
by His Royal Highness, with, perhaps, a chorus by the 
whole strength of the company, was admirably calculated 
to bring certain individuals to the spot, who in a very few 
moments would have put an end to the harmony of the 
meeting. In this respect we opine that the fancy of Mrs. 
Robinson had rather more to do in the representation than 
truth ; but it is these inconsistencies which, more than any 
other circumstances, threw a hue of discredit over the char- 
acter of a narrative which, in other respects, might be 
entitled to our unqualified belief of its authenticity. 

" Often have I lamented the distance which destiny has 
placed between us 5 how would my soul have idolized such 
a husband ! Alas ! how often, in the ardent enthusiasm of 
my soul, have I formed the wish that that being were mine 
alone, to whom partial millions were to look up for protection." 

" The Duke of York was now on the eve of quitting the 
country for Hanover j the Prince was also on the point of 
receiving his first establishment, and the apprehension that 
his attachment to a married woman might injure him in the 
opinion of the world rendered the caution which we inva- 
riably observed of the utmost importance. A considerable 
time elapsed in these delightful scenes of visionary happi- 
ness. The Prince's attachment seemed to increase daily, 
and I considered myself as the most blessed of human 
beings. During some time we had enjoyed our meetings in 
the neighborhood of Kew, and I now only looked forward 
to the adjusting of His Royal Highness' establishment for 
the public avowal of our mutual attachment." 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 61 

Mrs. Bobinson proceeds to relate that the daily prints 
now fostered the malice of her enemies by the most scan- 
dalous paragraphs respecting the Prince and herself. " i 
now found," she says, " it was too late to stop the hourly 
augmenting torrent of abuse which was poured on me from 
all quarters. Whenever I appeared in public I was over- 
whelmed by the gazing of the multitude 5 I was frequently 
obliged to quit Eanelagh owing to the crowd which staring 
curiosity had assembled round my box ; and, even m the 
streets of the metropolis, I scarcely ventured to enter a 
shop without experiencing the greatest inconvenience. 
Many hours have I waited till the crowd dispersed which 
surrounded my carriage in expectation of my quitting the 
shop. I shuddered at the gulf before me, and felt small 
gratification in the knowledge of having taken a step which 
many who condemned it would have been no less willing to 
imitate had they been placed in the same situation. 

" Previously to my first interview with His Royal High- 
ness, in one of his letters I was astonished to find a bond of 
the most solemn and binding nature, containing a promise 
of the sum of £20,000 to be paid at the period of His Eoyal 
Highness coming of age. 

" This paper was signed by the Prince and sealed with 
the royal arms. It was expressed in terms so liberal, 
so voluntary, so marked by true affection, that I had 
scarcely power to read it. My tears, excited by the most 
agonizing conflicts, obscured the letters, and nearly blotted 
out those sentiments which will be impressed upon my 
mind till the latest period of my existence. Still I felt 
shocked and mortified at the indelicate idea of entering 
into any pecuniary engagements with a Prince on whose 
establishment I relied for the enjoyment of all that would 
render life desirable. I was surprised at receiving it 5 the 
idea of interest had never entered my mind 5 secure of the 
possession of his heart, I had in that delightful certainty 



62 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 

counted all my future treasure. I had refused many 
splendid gifts which. His Eoyal Highness had proposed 
ordering for me at Gray's and other eminent jewellers. 
The Prince presented to me a few trifling ornaments, the 
whole in their value not exceeding one hundred guineas. 
Even these, on our separation, I returned to His Eoyal 
Highness by the hands of General Lake. 

u The period now approached that. was to destroy all the 
fairy visions which had filled my mind with dreams of hap- 
piness. At the moment when everything was preparing 
for His Eoyal Highness' establishment, when I looked im- 
patiently for the arrival of that day, in which I might 
behold my adored friend gratefully receiving the acclama- 
tions of his future subjects, when I might enjoy the public 
protection of that being for whom I gave up all, I received 
a letter from H^ Eoyal Highness — a cold and unkind letter 
— briefly informing me that we must meet no more ! 

"And now I call Heaven to witness that I was wholly 
unconscious why this decision had taken place in His Eoyal 
Highness' mind. Only two days previously to the letter 
being written I had seen the Prince at Kew, and his affec- 
tion appeared to be boundless as it was undiminished. 

"Amazed, afflicted beyond the power of utterance, I 
wrote immediately to His Eoyal Highness requiring an ex- 
planation. He remained silent. Again I wrote, but re- 
ceived no elucidation of this most cruel and extraordinary 
mystery. The Prince was then at Windsor. I set out in 
a small pony phaeton, wretched, and unacconrpanied by 
anyone, excepting my j>ostilion, a boy of nine years of age. 
It was dark when we quitted Hyde Park Corner. On my 
arrival at Hounslow the innkeeper informed me that every 
carriage which had passed the Heath for the last ten nights 
had been attacked and rifled. I confess the idea of per- 
sonal danger had no terrors for my mind in the state it 
then was, and the probability of annihilation, divested of 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 63 

the crime of suicide, encouraged, rather than diminished, 
my determination of proceeding. We had scarcely reached 
the middle of the Heath when my horses were startled by 
the sudden appearance of a man rushing from the side of 
the road. The boy, on perceiving him, instantly spurred 
his pony, and, by a sudden bound of our light vehicle, the 
ruffian missed his grasp at the front rein. We now pro- 
ceeded at full speed, while the footpad ran, endeavoring to 
overtake us. At length my horses fortunately outrunning 
the perseverance of the assailant, we reached the first Mag- 
pie, a small inn on the Heath, in safety. The alarm which, 
in spite of my resolution, this adventure had occasioned, 
was augmented on my recollecting, for the first time, that 
I had then in my black stock a brilliant stud, of very con- 
siderable value, which could only have been possessed by 
the robber by strangling the wearer. 

" If my heart palpitated with joy at my escape from 
assassination, a circumstance soon after occurred that did 
not tend to quiet my emotions : this was the appearance of 
of M. H. Meynel and Mrs. Armstead, afterwards the wife 
of Charles James Fox. My foreboding soul instantly saw 
a rival, and with jealous eagerness interpreted the hitherto 
inexplicable conduct of the Prince, from his having fre- 
quently expressed a wish to see that lady. On my arrival 
the Prince would not see me. My agonies were now inde- 
scribable. I consulted with Lord Maiden and the Duke of 
Dorset, whose honorable mind and truly disinterested 
friendship for me had on many occasions been exemplified 
towards me. They were both at a loss to divine any cause 
for this sudden change in the Prince's feelings. The Prince 
of Wales had hitherto assiduously sought opportunities to 
distinguish me more publicly than was prudent in His 
Eoyal Highness 7 situation. This was in the month of 
August. On the 4th of the preceding June, I went, by his 
desire, into the Chamberlain's box, at the birthnight ball ; 



64 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING-. 

9 

the distressing attention of the circle was drawn towards 
the part of the box in which I sat, by the marked and inju- 
dicious attentions of His Eoyal Highness. I had not been 
seated many minutes before I witnessed a rather singular 
species of fashionable coquetry. Previously to His Royal 
Highness beginning the minuet, I perceived a lady of high 
rank select from the bouquet which she wore two rosebuds, 
which she gave to the Prince, as he afterwards said to me, 
emblematical of herself and him. I observed His Eoyal 
Highness immediately beckon to a nobleman, who has 
since formed a part of his establishment, and, looking most 
earnestly at me, whispered a few words, at the same time 
presenting to him his newly acquired trophy. In a few 
minutes Lord 0. entered the Chamberlain's box, and giving 
the rosebuds into my hands, informed me that he was com- 
missioned by the Prince to do so. I placed them in my 
bosom, and I confess I felt proud of the powers by which I 
had thus publicly mortified an exalted rival. His Eoyal 
Highness now avowedly distinguished me at all public 
places of entertainment, at the King's hunt near Windsor, 
and at the reviews and the theatres. The Prince only 
seemed happy in evincing his affection towards me." 

Of the causes which led to the alienation of the affections 
of the Prince from his lovely and accomplished friend, Mrs. 
Eobinson has not left in her narrative any clue wherefrom 
to form a right judgment. " My good natured friends," she 
proceeds, " now carefully informed me of the multitude of 
secret enemies who were employed in estranging the 
Prince's mind from me. So fascinating, so illustrious a 
lover, could not fail to excite the envy of my own sex. 
Women of all descriptions were emulous of attracting His 
Eoyal Highness' attention. Alas ! I had neither rank nor 
power to oppose to such adversaries. Every engine of 
female malice was set in motion to destroy my repose, and 
every petty calumny was repeated with tenfold embellish- 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 65 

ments. Tales of the most infamous and glaring falsehood 
were invented, and I was again assailed by pamphlets, by 
paragraphs and caricatures, and all the artillery of slander; 
while the only being to whom I then looked up for protec- 
tion was so situated as to be unable to afford it. 

" In the anguish of my soul I once more addressed the 
Prince of Wales ; I complained perhaps too vehemently of 
his injustice, of the calumnies which had been by my ene- 
mies fabricated against me, of the falsehood of which he 
was but too sensible. I conjured him to render me justice. 
He did so ; he wrote me a most eloquent letter, disclaiming 
the causes alleged by a calumniating world, and fully 
acquitted me of the charges which had been propagated to 
destroy me." 

After some weeks passed in much wretchedness of mind, 
Mrs. Robinson had an interview with the Prince of Wales, 
which for a moment promised a renewal of their intercourse. 
As this interview was the last that took place between them 
with any view of reviving their connection, we shall give 
the account of it in Mrs. Robinson's own words : u After 
much hesitation," says she, u by the advice of Lord Maiden, 
I consented to meet His Royal Highness. He accosted 
me with every appearance of tender attachment, declaring 
that he had never for one moment ceased to love me, but 
that I had many concealed enemies, who were exerting 
every effort to undermine me. We passed some hours in 
the most friendly and delightful conversation, and I began 
to flatter myself that all our differences were adjusted. 
But what words can express my surprise and chagrin when, 
on meeting his Royal Highness the very next day in Hyde 
Park, he turned his head to avoid seeing me, and even 
affected not to know me % 

" Overwhelmed by this blow, my distress knew no limits. 
Yet Heaven can witness the truth of my assertion — even 
in this moment of complete despair, when oppression 



(>G THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 

bowed me to the earth, I blamed not the Prince. I did 
then, and ever shall consider his mind as nobly and honor- 
ably organized ; nor conld I teach myself to believe that 
a heart, the seat of so many virtues, could possibly become 
inhuman and unjust. I had been taught from my infancy 
to believe that elevated stations are surrounded by delu- 
sive visions which glitter but to dazzle, like an unsubstan- 
tial meteor, and natter to betray. 

We shall only remark upon this narrative that it bears on 
the face of it unquestionable marks of sincerity and genu- 
ineness. It is written with the freedom of frendship, and 
the language and sentiments are such as a person of a sen- 
sible and well cultivated mind, but of strong feelings, 
would in all probability use. It has, indeed, scarcely any- 
thing of the air of an apology. Mrs. Robinson candidly 
acknowledges that the manners, the accomplishments, the 
fascinations of the heir apparent completely seized upon her 
affections, and rendered her totally unable to resist his 
Royal Highness 7 advances. To this it may be added that, 
to the latest period of her life, her attachment for the 
Prince continued unabated. When on her death bed she 
requested that a lock of her hair might be presented to His 
Royal Highness ; and this mark of her regard is said to 
have been received, on the part of the Prince, with strong 
demonstrations of sensibility — might we not also add, of 
compunction ? 

The beautiful poem which was published in " The Annual 
Register," and entitled, by Mrs. Robinson, "Lines to him who 
will understand them," evidently seems to have been com- 
posed at no very distant period from the date of her sepa- 
ration from the Prince. As these lines breathe a pensive 
spirit of tenderness, affection, and regret, which no one but 
an amiable and accomplished object could have inspired, we 
shall offer no apology to our readers for presenting them 
with the following extract : 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 67 

tl Thou art no more my bosom friend, 
Here must the sweet delusion end 
That charmed my senses many a year, 
Through smiling summers, winters drear. 
Oh Friendship ! am I doomed to find 
Thou art a phantom of the mind — 
A glittering shade, an empty name, 
An air-born vision's vap'rish flame ? 
And yet the dear deceit so long 
Has waked to joy my matin song, 
Has bid my tears forget to flow, 
Chased every pain, soothed every woe ; 
That truth, unwelcome to my ear, 
Swells the deep sigh, recalls the tear ; 
Gives to the sense the keenest smart ; 
Checks the warm pulses of the heart ; 
Darkens my fate, and steals away 
Each gleam of joy through life's sad way. 
Britain, farewell ! — 1 quit thy shore ; 
My native country charms no more ; 
No guide to mark the toilsome road ; 

No destined clime ; no fix'd abode. j 

Alone and sad — ordained to trace 
The vast expanse of endless space ; 
To view, upon the mountain's height, 
Thro' varied shades of glimmering light, 
The distant landscape fades away 
In the last gleam of parting day ; 
Or in the quiv'ring lucid stream 
To watch the pale moon's silvery beam ; 
Or when in sad and plaintive strains 
The mournful Philomel complains, 
In dulcet notes bewails her fate, 
And murmurs for her absent mate, 
Inspir'd by sympathy divine, 
I'll weep her woes — for they are mine. 
Djdven by Fate, where'er I go, 
O'er burning plains, o'er hills of snow, 
Or on the bosom of the wave 
The howling tempest doom'd to brave, 
Where'er my lonely course I bend 



68 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

Thy image shall my steps attend ; 
Each object I am doom'd to see 
Shall bid remembrance picture thee. 
Yes, I shall view thee in each flower 
That changes with the transient hour; 
Thy wand'ring fancy I shall find 
. Borne on the wings of every wind ; 
Thy wild impetuous passions trace 
O'er the white waves tempestuous space ; 
In every changing season prove 
An emblem of thy wav'ring love." 

In dismissing this subject, replete with so much import- 
ance to the early character of the Prince, we cannot, consist- 
ently with that partiality which ought to distinguish an his- 
torian, wholly acquit him of a certain degree of unfeeling 
conduct towards an individual who had sacrificed her fame, 
her honor, and her person to the ardor of his passion, and on 
whose affection and kindness, considering her own amiable 
and endearing conduct, she undoubtedly possessed the 
highest claim. Notwithstanding, Mrs. Eobinson, in the ful- 
ness of a woman's love, makes every attempt to palliate the 
conduct of the Prince, and to throw a veil over the harsh 
features of the latter part of it; yet it must be apparent to 
everyone that it cannot be justified on any principle of 
honor, feeling, or humanity. Still, however, it must be 
allowed that we see only the puppets, but not the secret 
machinery by which they are moved; and, therefore, in 
common charity, we are bound to put the most favorable 
construction on the actions of those who are known not to 
be wholly independent, and who are obliged to act according 
to the power and control of others. In the generality of 
cases, the effect usually determines the presence or absence 
of any foreign interference; but, in the present instance, 
there was no plea urged of any secret constraint— on the 
contrary, there was a studied and mysterious concealment 
of the motive— an obstinate and decided objection to enter 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 69 

into any explanation of the sudden change which had taken 
p&ce in the sentiments of the Prince towards the avowed 
object of his love; the most chilling indifference succeeded 
almost instantaneously to the most ardent protestations of 
unalterable affection, and all without any other ostensible 
cause than mere caprice. ' Justice, honor, and humanity, 
therefore, here step in, and denounce the»action as contrary 
to every one of their acknowledged principles; she saw 
herself abandoned, deserted, and exposed to the contumely 
of a censorious and malicious world— a helpless being for 
the finger of scorn to point at — a victim to an ardent and 
ill requited love. That love was to her a holy spot in the 
waste of her memory — it was the single theme of her 
thoughts, the idol of her dreams, and the separation was 
forever. 

It is evident that the calculation of Mrs. Eobinson was 
founded in error when she supposed, great and superlative 
as were her personal charms, and splendid as were her 
mental endowments, that she could enchain the affec- 
tions of so fickle, so accomplished, and so illustrious a 
lover, surrounded as he was by the youthful beauties 
of his father's Court, and roaming at large amongst 
the still, perhaps, greater beauties of the humbler ranks 
of life. Herein she failed, and everything must have 
conspired to tell her that her failure was inevitable. 
That a connection of this kind could have been perma- 
nent could scarcely have been expected by the most san- 
guine and enthusiastic spirit; but the dark shade which 
envelopes the character of the royal libertine arises from 
the manner in which the once cherished object of his early 
love was discarded. She had sacrificed for him everything 
that was dear to woman — for him she bounded over the 
barrier which is considered the safeguard of female virtue ; 
she clung to him with an affection which none but a 
woman's heart can feel. Self-interest was an idea too base 



70 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

and grovelling to hold dominion for a moment in a mind 
like hers ; she lived but for hint, and in him only was she 
happy- When her enemies assailed her (and that a woman, 
standing in the relation which she did with the heir appa- 
rent should be without enemies, would, indeed, be a miracle 
in the history of human life) — when she became the object 
of the malicious wit of literary hirelings, and her name was 
coupled with the most noted Messalina of the day, did she 
shrink from an investigation jof her conduct ? — did she hide 
herself behind the veil of secrecy ? — did she not appeal to 
her royal lover to disprove the charges of her enemies ? — 
and did he not then unequivocally declare that he believed 
all those charges to be founded in malice and falsehood ? 
It is, therefore, proved by his own declaration that it was 
not any imputation which had been thrown on the charac- 
ter of Mrs. Robinson which effected a change in the Prince's 
sentiments towards her ; but his discarding of her partook 
of the character of the individual, who, having enjoyed the 
kernel, throws away the shell with indifference. Had he 
given any plea or excuse for his apparently unfeeling con- 
duct 5 had he sheltered himself under the consciousness, 
which, to suit his purpose, might be supposed to have 
burst suddenly upon him, of the moral impropriety of the 
connection, as standing in the exalted rank of the heir 
apparent to the crown, the lovely sufferer, even then, would 
have felt the blow severely $ but then, as a balsam to her 
wounded spirit, she would have had an apparently osten- 
sible cause to support her for her loss, and she would have 
derived some consolation from the reflection that it was 
not the decline nor the death of his affection which had 
estranged him from her, but that it was simply owing to 
the peculiarity of the circumstances under which her 
lover was placed. Had he adduced, as the cause of his 
estrangement, that the mandate of a parent had been 
issued to put an end to the connection, or that having 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 71 

now attained his majority, and having entered as an ex- 
alted member into the great family compact of the nation, 
it behoved him, as the future ruler, to be circumspect and 
prudent in his conduct — a tear might have fallen at the 
destruction of her earthly hopes, and the memory of the 
blissful hours of their love would have hallowed the last 
moments of her existence. But the beautiful flower was 
thrown aside with the most callous indifference 5 the spoiler 
had revelled in its sweets — he had satiated himself with its 
beauties — in -the ardor of his love he took it to his bosom, 
blooming, fresh, full of life and bounding spirit : he threw 
it from him, broken, defoliaged, faded, destroyed for ever. 

We have looked in vain for one mitigating plea, for one 
redeeming reason, for the conduct of this royal libertine, 
and we sincerely wish, from that regard which we otherwise 
entertain for his general character, that some clue had been 
left us by which the mystery in which his conduct towards 
Mrs. Eobinson is involved could have been satisfactorily 
solved. We enter not into the question of the morality of 
the connection, nor do we attribute the termination of it to 
any conscientious scruples which might have arisen in the 
mind of the Prince of Wales, for his subsequent conduct 
contradicts that assumption $ but for our desire to rescue 
his memory, as much as possible, from the unfeeling and 
ungenerous conduct towards a lovely and confiding woman, 
who, but for his allurements, would have remained an orna- 
ment to her profession, and who, perhaps, would have 
closed her earthly career with the exhilarating conscious- 
ness of having spent a life of virtue and decorum. 

Notwithstanding, however, the moral turpitude of this 
connection of the Prince with Mrs. Eobinson, there were 
not wanting some who endeavored to throw over it the 
veil of extenuation, and to represent it as attended with a 
very small degree of indecorum and impropriety. Thus, 
one of the writers of that day says : " It was a case stained 



72 THE PRIVATE LIFE 6f A KING. 

with no remarkable turpitude or gross departure from the 
moral laws of society. It was not a case of seduction, and 
the person who, of all others, had the most right to com- 
plain had released his wife from her vow by his own 
estrangement of conduct. Here, then, was nothing very 
flagrant in this particular action of the Prince's life, yet it 
has been much dwelt upon by those who have made the 
abuse of the Prince of Wales (and such men there are) 
their livelihood. These ungenerous and unprincipled 
writers, who look, into characters only for the purpose of 
finding faults, have stigmatized this transaction in the 
most virulent terms ; and have inferred, from his attach- 
ment to a beautiful and amiable woman, an unbounded and 
promiscuous passion for the sex in general. This calumny, 
equally detestable and unfounded, has been propagated in 
a hundred ways ; and, there is reason to apprehend, with 
too much success, for no one can be ignorant how much 
quicker scandal flies, and how much more tenaciously it is 
retained than truth : 

" Discit enim citius, meminitque libentius illud 
Quod quis deridet, quam quod probat, et veneratur." 

" The youth of the Prince, and the seductions to which 
his rank exposed him, never entered into the calculations 
of these writers. It is not for their purpose to seek out 
extenuating circumstances, but to magnify what are, at 
worst, mere levities or indiscretions, or the pardonable 
ebullitions of youth. By what analogy was it to be 
expected that the generous blood of the heir apparent was 
to be icebound, while that of every noble youth in the 
kingdom might run riot, and flow without reproach V J 

The sophistry of these arguments, although very finely 
spun, is most easily detected ; and it affords another 
proof of the injury which an over zealous and officious 
friend may commit in the espousal of any cause, when he 
has not prudence nor ability to guide him through it. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 73 

With all the facts staring him in the face, as related in 
the simple and candid narrative of Mrs. Robinson, the 
writer departs wholly from the trnth ; and, in order to save 
the honor of the Prince, ventures to pronounce that it was 
not a case of seduction $ from which he draws the infer- 
ence that the conduct of this royal rake was divested of 
all flagrancy. It will not, however, require great powers 
of reasoning to prove that it was a case of the most 
studied, the most deliberate seduction. Previously to the 
moment when the charms of Mrs. Robinson captivated the 
affections of the royal youth, calumny had not dared to 
inflict a single stain upon her character. A beautiful 
woman, neglected and deserted by her husband, is gener- 
ally the object of the seductive arts of the libertine ; and 
such being the case with Mrs. Robinson, we are able to 
assert that her virtue had undergone and surmounted the 
severest of temptations. The very profession which she 
had chosen as the means of her support, and which may 
with justice be considered as the severest ordeal to which 
female virtue can be exposed, tended, whilst it made her the 
object of public admiration, to throw her into that very 
society where, if her disposition had been to fall, she 
would have found hundreds who would have been willing 
to accelerate and to triumph in it. We have only to refer 
to the Duke of Queensberry and to another duke, almost 
as notorious as the former in the pages of gallantry, who 
used every instrument which rank or fortune could place 
in their hands to undermine the virtue of this lovely 
woman, but she remained firm, unconquerable ; and when 
the latter nobleman sent her a carte blanche to fix her own 
terms, she returned the memorable answer : "Poverty with 
virtue and happiness is preferable to affluence with guilt 
and misery." 

We are by no means ignorant that, at the time when the 
Prince of Wales was captivated with the charms of Mrs. 

4 



74 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING-. 

Robinson, there were other suitors for her favors, amongst 
whom General Tarleton was considered as the most 
favored. The following anecdote, however, deserves men- 
tion, as it shows the manner in which she treated some of 
those suitors, who wholly mistook her character, in con- 
sidering, according to the prejudice of the day, that, as she 
was an actress, her favors were a marketable commodity, 
: and to be purchased by the highest bidder. Amongst the 
most dashing rakes of the city at that time was Mr. Pugh, 
the son of Alderman Pugh, who had seen Mrs. Robinson 
in the character of Juliet, and, becoming violently enam- 
ored of her, he wrote to her, offering her twenty guineas 
for ten minutes' conversation icith her. Mrs. Robinson imme- 
diately answered him, consenting to grant him the favor 
he asked for the stipulated sum 5 and, elated with the 
prospect of the consummation of his wishes, Pugh repaired 
to the house of Mrs. Robinson at the appointed time. On 
his arrival, however, instead, as he expected, of being 
closeted with Mrs. Robinson, he was ushered into a room 
where he found that lady in company with General Tarle- 
ton and Lord Maiden ; and on his entrance Mrs. Robinson 
detached her watch from her side, and laid it on the table. 
She then immediately turned from her former companions, 
and addressed her conversation wholly to Pugh, who, by the 
titter which sat upon the countenances of General Tarle- 
ton and Lord Maiden, evidently saw that he was a com- 
plete dupe in the hands of his beautiful inamorata. Mrs. 
Robinson now took up the watch, the ten minutes were 
expired 5 she rose from her chair, rang the bell, and, on 
the servant entering, she desired him to open the door for 
Mr. Pugh, who, completely confounded, took his leave, 
minus twenty guineas, which, on the following day, were 
divided amongst four charitable institutions.* 
But the evil hour came at last. On a sudden she 
* Suppressed edition. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 75 

beheld herself, in the most unexpected manner, the idol- 
ized object of one of the most handsome and accomplished 
youths in the kingdom, and that youth the heir apparent 
to the crown. It were to betray a total ignorance of 
human nature, and particularly of the female character, if 
we were to assert that the vanity of Mrs. Robinson was 
not nattered in beholding herself the chosen object of the 
affections of the Prince of Wales, for which many a bosom 
was sighing in vain, and to attain which every snare and 
net were laid which love or passion could devise. Agents 
young in years, though skilled in intrigue and in the con- 
quest of female virtue, were immediately set to work ; and 
to the indelible disgrace of one of those agents be it 
recorded that he condescended to the commission of acts 
worthy only of the most unprincipled panderer. This man 
— for we will not affix the epithet of noble before that 
word, on the principle that every nobleman is not a noble 
man — so far degraded himself as, on the first night of the 
assignation of the Prince with Mrs. Robinson, to carouse 
with her husband, and to leave him in such a state of com- 
plete intoxication as to divest the parties . of all fear of 
any intrusion on his part j for, although living almost in a 
state of separation from his wife, he was in the habit of 
continually annoying her, especially when he thought that 
she had received any part of her salary from the theatre. 
The very difficulty, however, which the Prince experienced 
in obtaining the consummation of his wishes showed that 
the virtue of Mrs. Robinson was of no ordinary strength. 

The fruit which he had hitherto enjoyed had fallen from 
the bough at the first shake ; and the unexpected obstacles, 
therefore, which now presented themselves, only tended to 
increase the keenness of his appetite. Every art and strat- 
agem which the most finished seducer, assisted by the 
most experienced agents could suggest, were adopted. 
Assignation after assignation was held, and chiefly at the 



76 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

Eelpie House, the Prince leaving Kew Palace in various 
disguises, and on one occasion he scaled the walls of the 
garden disguised as a watchman. 

Months after months, however, elapsed, and still the cit- 
adel held out — the struggle was great — it was agonizing ; 
it was a contest which, to the honor and character of the 
assailed party be it said, that few in her situation would 
have maintained so long — the victory at last was won ; and 
if female seduction be attended with flagrancy, the conduct 
of this royal seducer cannot, in this instance, stand absolved 
from it. He knew Mrs. Eobinson to be a married woman, and 
the mother of a daughter — the seduction of her, therefore, 
stamped him with the character of the adulterer ; and when 
We are told by the advocates of the Prince that the conduct 
of her husband released her from the obligations of her mar- 
riage vow, we cannot find words sufficiently energetic to ex- 
press our disapprobation at the danger and immoral ten- 
dency of such a doctrine. Mr. Eobinson was certainly a bad 
and profligate husband ; but it is breaking one of the most 
important links in the chain of human society to allege 
that the profligacy of the husband authorizes any profli- 
gacy on the part of the wife ; much less can it, in the least 
degree, extenuate her infidelity. We have been purposely 
diffuse on this subject, as we wish to place all the charac- 
ters who came into immediate personal contact with the 
illustrious individual, who has now gone to his account 
where guilt really presents itself, there let it be fearlessly 
exposed — let the burden of iniquity be borne oh the right 
shoulders 5 and never let it be repeated that, in order to 
screen the vices or jirofligacies of the prince or the mon- 
arch, we servilely throw an unmerited obloquy on the char- 
acter of those who are no longer in this world to exonerate 
themselves from the imputations which are cast upon 
them. 

On the whole, this may be considered as the history of a 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OP A KING. 77 

transaction which, created suspicions which must ever be 
deplored, and feelings of dissatisfaction which were never 
afterwards entirely obliterated. The advocates of the 
Prince, indeed, contended that the connection was improper 
— that Mrs. Eobinson was a married woman and an actress 
— that the Prince was but a young man — that it would 
have been improper, and indeed criminal, to have perpetu- 
ated the intercourse— and that the only possible way to 
avoid the evils which the connection would entail on him, 
was u to get rid of her at once." But to such defence it 
was replied, that the Prince had sought ■, nattered, caressed, 
and won the heart of Mrs. Eobinson 5 that for more than 
two years the intimacy had subsisted between them $ that 
there was no pretence now for breaking off the connection, 
especially as others were forming $ that it displayed a waver- 
ing and vacillating disposition, and affections inconsistent 
alike with a great mind and a generous heart 5 and, princi- 
pally, that, even if the action were in itself correct, the man- 
ner in which it was performed was alone sufficient to indi- 
cate a total absence of sensibility, and all the finer feelings 
of the Ti'eart. On such conflicting conclusions it is here 
unnecessary to offer any opinion. The facts, unvarnished, 
have been presented by Mrs. Eobinson, and the present and 
succeeding generations will draw their own conclusions. 

In one particular, however, Mrs. Eobinson has forgotten 
to do that justice to the character of the Prince which it 
deserves, and which goes, in some measure, to show that in 
her connection with the Prince she was not wholly exempt 
from selfish motives. It is true that she sent him back his 
bond 5 but, nevertheless, on her leaving the country, she 
threatened to enforce the penalty of it, although, in some 
respects, it could not be considered as much more than a 
bit of waste paper. The business was ultimately left to the 
arbitration of Mr. Fox, who, for particular reasons, which 
rather tarnish than exalt his character, used his utmost 



78 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A.KING. 

endeavors to promote the expatriation of Mrs. Robinson. A 
handsome annuity was finally settled on her, 'and also to 
extend to the life of her only daughter by Mr. Robinson. 

That the affection of this lovely woman for the Prince was 
not of a transient, fickle nature, but that it was interwoven 
with the closest fibres of her heart, may be gathered from 
the circumstance that on her death bed she requested that 
a lock of her hair might be presented to His Royal High- 
ness; and the last mark of her regard, this indisputable 
proof that he still lived even in death the object of her 
love, was, it is said, received by the Prince with strong feel- 
ings of solicitude and care. We envy him not his feelings 
when he received it. 

We now find the Prince running the range of the Opera 
House — the idol of the women — the envy of the men. To fix 
him, however, long in his attachments, appeared to be in 
direct variance with his nature ; and there were many who 
had no sooner flattered themselves that they held him fast 
in their chains than, to their great mortification, he snapped 
them suddenly asunder, and appeared as if he had never 
felt their pressure. This was particularly the case with 
Oarno valla, whose husband originally belonged to the 
orchestra, and who, subsequently, by the interest of the 
Prince, became manager of the Opera House. This lady, 
although not a beauty of the first order, was in her man- 
ners one of those fascinating women who often, in the 
absence of any great personal charms, establish an un- 
bounded influence over the heart of man ; and it was to this 
power of fascination that Carnovalla owed the dominion 
which she held for a short time over the affections of the 
Prince. It must not, however, be concealed that this con- 
nection, for reasons the mention of which must be omitted, 
was one of the most disreputable which the Prince ever 
formed ; and when the husband of the lady afterwards 
turned out to be an incendiary, by setting fire to the Opera 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING-. 79 

House, a considerable share of the opprobrium fell upon the 
Prince, in having been the instrument of obtaining for so 
bad a character the management of the concern. 

The period was now approaching when the Prince was to 
be emancipated from parental control, and to take that 
station in society to which his illustrious rank entitled him. 
In the month of June, 1783, Lord John Cavendish, who 
then filled the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, pre- 
sented the following message from His Majesty to the House 
of Commons : 

" George E. 

" His Majesty, reflecting on the propriety of a separate 
establishment for his dearly beloved son, the Prince of 
Wales, recommends the consideration thereof to this House, 
relying on the experienced zeal and affection of his faithful 
Commons for such aid towards making that establishment 
as shall appear consistent with a due attention to the cir- 
cumstances of his people, every addition to whose burthens 
His Majesty feels with the most sensible concern. 

" G. K.» 

George II, when Prince of Wales, enjoyed an income of 
$500,000 per annum, but the House of Commons deter- 
mined upon a far inferior sum, $250,000 a year, for the 
Prince, in answer to this petition of his father. 

Mr. Fox, then Secretary of State, and many others, 
argued against the scanty allowance, foreseeing the em- 
barrassments that would arise from an income so dispropor- 
tioned to the habits of the Prince at a period when he was 
exposed to all the allurements which can captivate the 
youthful passions. The wisdom of the King was never 
better displayed than in this instance. The disastrous and 
expensive war with America had just closed, and, at a time 
when economy was loudly called for in every branch of the 
public expenditure, h^ was unwilling that any exertion 



80 THE PKIVATE LIFE CE A KING-. 

should be made to increase the allotment to the Prince, 
who, it will be remembered, enjoyed in addition to this 
grant the revenues from the Duchy of Cornwall amounting 
to $150,000— in all, $400,000 a year. Surely no mean in- 
come for a youth just attaining his majority. The only 
military rank the Prince of Wales ever held was a Colonelcy 
of the 10th Light Dragoons, which he retained until his 
coronation. 

It was at this time that he manifested that predilection 
for Brighton which induced him at a future period to make 
that town his residence. The reports current at the time 
were that he was more influenced by the angelic figure of a 
sea nymph he saw upon the beach than by the marine 
views or the salubrity of the place. In this amour, how- 
ever, he was completely duped. So far as personal charms 
were concerned, Charlotte Fortescue was as lovely as one 
of Tennyson's sea fairies, but in mental qualifications she 
was very illiterate, and unparalled in artifice. She knew 
how to throw such, an air of innocent simplicity over her 
actions that would have deceived even a greater adept 
than this royal hbertine. She was not long in discovering 
the high rank of the individual whom she had captivated 
by her charms, and with her innate cunning for a time frus- 
trated all his attempts to obtain a private interview, know- 
ing that what is easily gained is lightly prized. Keeping 
her residence a secret for some days, she was neither seen 
nor heard of. Upon a sudden she made her appearance suf- 
fused in tears, announced her approaching marriage and 
her departure from the country. This stirred the Prince to 
immediate action, and, overcoming all her well feigned scru- 
ples, a romantic elopement was arranged, in which the beau- 
tiful fugitive should fly with the Prince in the dress of a 
footman, and a post chaise was to be in waiting a few miles 
on the London road to bear away the prize. 

The truth of the old adage of the cup and the lip was 



THE PRIVATE LIPE OF A KING. 81 

confirmed in this instance, however. Just as the hour was 
approaching, the arrival of George Hanger, who had just 
commenced his profligate career in fashionable circles, was 
announced. The Prince could do no less than invite him 
to dine, at the same time intimating that he must excuse 
him at au early hour, as important business compelled him 
to leave that night for the metropolis. After dinner the 
Prince inquired of Hanger what brought him to Brighter % 
so suddenly. 

"A hunt $ a hunt, your Eoyal Highness," said Hanger. 
" I am in chase of a d — d fine girl whom I met at Mrs. 
Simpson's in Duke's Place, and although I have taken pri- 
vate apartments for her, yet the hussy takes it into her 
head every now and then to absent herself for a few days ; 
and I have been given to understand she is carrying on 
some intrigue with a felloiv here in Brighton. Let me but 
catch him, and I will souse him over head and ears in the 
ocean !" 

It did not take the Prince long to guess that the lady 
with whom he was about to elope was the identical runaway 
friend Of Hanger's, and he began to study how he should 
extricate himself with the best possible grace from the mor- 
tifying dilemma. He was convinced he was the dupe of a 
cunning, designing girl, and therefore it would be his great- 
est pride and joy to outwit her. Disclosing the whole of 
the intrigue to Hanger, they concocted a plot which should 
avenge them both. Hanger, putting on the dress in which 
she had been accustomed to see her royal lover, took Ms 
seat hi the chaise instead of the Prince. The whole affair 
was well managed. The Prince remained at Brighton. 
Hanger bore off the lady to London, who was covered with 
chagrin at the unexpected termination of her romantic 
elopement. 

Prince George became intimate with certain distinguished 
students of Oxford, whose doings are graphically described 

4* 



82 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

in the English " Spy." He was known frequently to take a 
run down to that famous collegiate town, and have a 
lark with the fast young men there. It was, perhaps, in 
those gay times he made the acquaintance of a noted old 
woman known as u Mother Goose," once a noted procuress, 
and it is possible she still offered her vocation in the inter- 
est of her royal patron, for George ; as Blackmantler says 
'(•His Majesty never passed through Oxford without pre- 
senting Mother Goose with a donation." She had two 
interesting, buxom daughters, quite young, which, it is pre- 
sumable, was the direct cause of " His Majesty" afterwards 
taking such interest in their old mother. She had a num- 
ber of other children besides the two daughters, all illegiti- 
mate and also females, every one of whom, except the 
youngest, this unnatural mother sacrificed for gold, and sold 
to a life of infamy and shame. A being in the shape of a 
man, in, her declining life, supposing she had amassed a 
fortune by her nefarious profession, married her only to find 
himself mistaken. She ultimately became blind, and find- 
ing she could no longer earn the libertine's gold by seducing 
from the paths of virtue innocent, inexperienced girls, she 
took to selling flowers and bouquets — peddling them around 
to the students of the various colleges. Her clean and neat 
appearance, her singular address, never failed of procuring 
good prices for her beautiful flowers, especially when she 
informed the young gentlemen of the generosity of their 
fathers or uncles. 




" --:; 




MOTHER GOOSE AT HER VOCATION. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 83 



©ftairtM Ifttol 



On the 12th of August, 1783, the Prince of Wales at- 
tained his majority j the celebration of it, however, was 
postponed at Court in consequence of the accouchement of 
the Queen of her fifteenth child, which took place on the 
7th of the same month. The King and royal family, there- 
fore, received the congratulations of the nobility in a pri- 
vate manner, and George gave a very grand entertainment 
to several of the nobility at the White Hart Tavern, Wind- 
sor. A large turtle, of the enormous size of four hundred 
weight, was killed on the occasion, being a present sent to 
the Prince from the East Indies. 

The first establishment of the Prince was a welcome 
event to^his numerous flatterers, especially to some amongst 
them whose profligacy and poverty seemed to vie with each 
other which should the soonest complete his ruin. Deeply 
did every real friend of the Prince lament that of this per- 
nicious class some had obtained an entire ascendancy over 
his ingenuous mind j and that, whilst they hailed his inde- 
pendence with hollow congratulations, they dreaded noth- 
ing so much as for his spirit to become as independent as 
his circumstances, and his opinions to disdain the restraint 
which his person had shaken off. They were, in fact, re- 
solved that neither persons nor circumstances should long 
continue independent of their control; hence arose that 
course of extravagant folly to which they urged him, and 
which in a very short time compelled the King and Parlia- 
ment to interfere for his relief. 



84 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

At the opening of Parliament, on the 11th of November, 
1783, Prince George was introduced into the House of 
Peers, on which occasion the following ceremonial was 
observed : # 

He having been, by letters patent, dated the 19th day 
of August, created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, 
was in his robes, which, with the collar and order of the 
Garter, he had put on in the Marshal's house, introduced 
into the House of Peers in the following order, as pub- 
lished in newspapers of the day : 

Gentleman Uslier of the Black Rod, with his Staff of Office; 

Earl of Surrey, Deputy Earl Marshal of England ; 

Lord Privy Seal ; 

Garter Principal King of Arms, in his robes, with the Sceptre, bearing 

His Royal Highness' Patent; 

Sir Peter Burrell, Deputy Great Chamberlain of England ; 

Viscount Stormount, 

Lord President of the Council ; 

The Coronet, • 

On a crimson velvet cushion, borne by Viscount Lewisham, one of the 

Gentlemen of His Royal Highness' Bedchamber ; 

His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, 

carrying his "Writ of Summons, supported by his Uncle the Duke of 

Cumberland, and the Dukes of Richmond and Portland. 

And, proceeding up the House with the usual reverences, 
the writ and patent were delivered to the Earl of Mans- 
field, Speaker, on the woolsack, and read by the Clerk of 
the Parliament at the table, " His Eoyal Highness "and 
the rest of the procession standing near ; after which " His 
Eoyal Highness " was conducted to his chair on the right 
hand of the throne, the coronet and cushion having been 
laid on a stool before the chair, and " His Eoyal High- 
ness " being covered, as usual, the ceremony ended. 

The King was seated on the throne with the usual solem- 

* London Gazette, temp. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING, 85 

nities, and having delivered his most gracious speech, 
retired out of the House. 

Then " His Eoyal Highness," at the table, took the oaths 
of allegiance and supremacy, and made and subscribed the 
declaration, and also took and subscribed the ridiculous 
oath of abjuration. 

The session in which the Prince now took his seat in the 
great council of the nation was one of the most important, 
though its importance is lost in the magnitude of succeed- 
ing events. The Coalition ministry, with the Duke of Port- 
land at its head (but with Mr. Fox the efficient minister,) 
was then at the zenith of his power, and menaced the royal 
authority with some restrictions of perogative, which are 
supposed to have given high offence to the interior cabinet 
of Buckingham House. We allude to the celebrated India 
Bill of Mr. Pox, which was introduced in this session and 
caused the dismission of the Coalition administration. 

The first time the Prince ever spoke in Parliament was 
upon the motion of the Marquis of Abercorn for an amend- 
ment to the address of the Commons upon the King's proc- 
lamation for pre venting seditious meetings and writings, 
and in a manly, eloquent, and, it may be added, persuasive 
manner, delivered his sentiments. 

The Prince spoke in a manner that called not only for the 
attention but the admiration of the House, and the follow- 
ing words were remarkably energetic: "I exist by the love, 
the friendship, and the benevolence of the people, and their 
cause I will never forsake as long as I live." And he might 
have added, so long as they will support me in my extrava- 
gances. 

When the Prince arrived at that period which emanci- 
pated him from the control of the Queen's palace ; when all 
that could give pleasure, flatter vanity, and gratify passion, 
was at his command ; when impelled by the vivacity of 
early life and warmed by the glow of a generous mind, he 



86 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

entered into the world as into a bower of delight, it becomes 
by no means a matter of surprise that the policy of certain 
men should actuate them to assume any and every form 
that might conciliate his favorable prepossessions, and hid. 
ing their serpent train in flowers, present themselves to his 
view in such a fascinating shape, and clothed with such 
attractions, as might appear to justify his warmest friend- 
ship. This, indeed, was a moment when severity itself 
knew not how to censure him for preferring the Epicurean 
to the Stoic philosophy. 

It is not by any means improbable that, in his unreserved 
and social hours, he now heard arguments insidiously sug- 
gested to support every branch and refinement of elegant 
intemperance. It might now be progressively insinuated to 
him that princes were elevated at too great a distance from 
the common herd of mankind to obtain a proper knowledge 
of them, and that to live as a subject was the best prepara- 
tion to fulfill the duties of a kirg; that to know the world 
it was necessary to mix in all the concerns of it ; that to 
indulge in what are called the vices of youth and fashion- 
able life was a proof of genuine spirit, and to give grace 
to his mode of enjoying them was a mark of superior 
genius ; that dignity was a grave and solemn quality which 
suited ill with youth ; that it was one of the formal accom- 
paniments of advanced life, and should be laid aside till the 
possession of sovereign power required the solemn exercise 
of it ; in short, that as the only period of enjoyment 
allotted to the heir of an empire was the uncertain space of 
time between the trammels of education and the cares of a 
crown, he was certainly more than justified in crowding 
into it all the pleasure it is capable of containing. 

Such doctrines might at this time have been propagated 
to. encourage the glowing dispositions of his age, while the 
crafty philosophers who taught them knew how to apply 
their principles to every object of luxurious and sensual 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 87 

gratification. It must also be premised that, with the dis- 
positions which the Prince possessed and the partialities 
which he had formed, it could not be expected that a rigid 
prudence was to be found amongst the most conspicuous of 
his virtues, or that he would submit to the plague of 
economical attention $ and such was in reality the case ; he 
indulged himself in profuse liberality, a splendor of appear- 
ance, and a variety of pleasures beyond the power of his 
revenue to support. The people whom the Prince chose for 
his social friends soon contrived, also, to involve him in 
their political principles. It was the natural consequence 
of the society he had adopted. He was even persuaded to 
attend the debates of the House of Commons, as the great 
school of political instruction, and he appeared to reserve 
his approving looks for the orators of the opposition. Still, 
however, he preserved the decorum of respectful inter- 
course with his royal parent, and Mr. Fox, in a parliament- 
ary eulogium of him, represented it, with his usual ability, 
as a very promising feature in his character, that he knew 
how to reconcile an opposition to his father's ministers with 
filial duty. 

It is, however, a notorious fact that the men who at tbis 
time styled themselves the opposition were the original 
cause of the pecuniary embarrassments of the Prince. 
Their example, their suggestions, their prodigalities, pro- 
gressively seduced him from the moral standard before he 
had acquired any knowledge of human artifice, and, in the 
moment of that seduction, they meanly and ruinously fat- 
tened upon his exceeding bounty $ yet no sooner were those 
means of improvident support withheld than they blotted 
all recollections of his munificence from their memories, and 
had the audacity to affect a pity for his diminished splen- 
dor, and publicly blamed him for having suffered himself to 
be their dupe and sacrifice. They rudely cast him upon an 
^discriminating society, encumbered in a great degree with 



88 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

a weight of responsibility for their own irregularities ; they 
shaded his perception, but could not suppress the arguments 
of his heart. 

Among the earliest friends of the Prince, Fox, Sheridan, 
and Burke may be considered as the most distinguished, a 
triumvirate of talent and genius which we can scarcely 
expect ever to behold again. In the formation of his estab- 
lishment the Prince consulted Mr. Fox, and it is undoubted 
that he entertained for him the most sincere regard. With 
Mr. Fox, therefore, he thenceforth formed a permanent 
friendship. Influenced by his* eloquence and impressed by 
his arguments and j)ersuasion, he regarded that illustrious 
statesman as a pattern for his imitation, and esteemed and 
reverenced him as the friend of man. Into the amusements 
and follies of the lighter hours of Mr. Fox the Prince entered 
with a zest which his previous restrictions tended to increase, 
and these follies and extravagances not unfrequently in- 
volved him in private broils, which exposed him to public 
animadversion. 

Mr. Fox, then in the prime of life, though not of his glory, 
stood on a commanding eminence, and the eyes, not only of 
his own nation, but of all the Courts of Europe, were turned 
upon him as the man above all others in the British domin- 
ions best qualified to be at the head of the Government. 
But his bold, independent spirit j the firmness with which 
he resisted the encroachments of the crown, and, above all, 
his sincere and unalterable attachment to the priviliges of 
the people, were insurmountable objections to his reception at 
Court. The King, educated in high Tory maxims, was ad- 
verse to his principles, and dreaded his spirit ; the favorites of 
the Court were naturally disgusted with his integrity, and 
shrank beneath his superior talents. In his parliamentary 
conduct there was nothing to censure, and as a minister he 
had shown himself incapable of being influenced by the 
seductions of office, or tempted by the love of power, to 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OP A KING. 89 

continue in place when the dictates of honor and conscience 
told him that he ought to resign. 

In the public life, therefore, of this illustrious man there 
was nothing that the most implacable of his enemies could 
fix upon that rendered him unfit to occupy the first place in 
the confidence of the heir apparent to the crown 5 and, 
therefore, in order to justify the obloquy which was cast 
upon the Prince for this attachment, it was necessary that 
the private character of Mr. Fox should undergo an exami- 
nation, and the amusements and follies of his ligher hours 
were made to pass in a severe and malignant review before 
the public judgment. And here it must be confessed that 
his enemies had some tangible grounds to proceed upon, 
for it is indisputable that he was guilty of many of the levi- 
ties and indiscretions which young men of fashion and for- 
tune commit; and that, like them, he experienced those 
pecuniary vicissitudes which generally indicate extrava- 
gance and imprudence. Into these follies and indiscretions 
the Prince of Wales unfortunately entered, and not possess- 
ing at that period that hold on the public opinion which the 
parliamentary exertions of Mr. Fox hajl ensured to him, he 
participated in the disgrace incidental to such conduct, with- 
out enjoying the counteracting influence of public esteem. 

It is our wish, from the sincere reverence which we feel for 
the extraordinary talents of this great man, that we could 
wholly acquit him of some acts which partake strongly of 
dishonor, and a wanton neglect Of those upright principles 
on which the genuine moral character is founded. We are 
aware that these sentiments are at direct variance with those 
expressed by a very able writer when treating of the private 
character of Mr. Fox, who says, " Take the word i honor 7 in 
whatever acceptance it can be applied, it will, from the nar- 
rowest scrutiny that can possibly be gone into Mr. Fox's 
life, be found that he never, even in the remotest degree, 
violated the strictest laws of honor. 77 



90 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

The person who was supposed at this time to hold a 
second place in the friendship of the Prince of Wales as a 
political man was Mr. Burke. Of the character of this 
great orator we are not to judge from the maxims of his 
later years, but from the principles which he asserted up to 
the period when he was distinguished by the friendship of 
the Prince. Brought into public notice by the munificence 
of the Marquis of Bockinghani, and attached to the Whig 
party both by sentiment and gratitude, the splendor of his 
eloquence, and his various literary attainments, had raised 
him to a high rank both in the political and literary world. 
The conduct of Mr. Burke, in his declining years, casts a 
shade over his character $ but we are disposed rather to 
view this luminary as he shone in the political hemisphere 
at the meridian of his glory than in his declension, when 
the evening and the lowering tempests of night obscured 
and deformed his setting rays. 

Mr. Burke was, on many accounts, one of the most re- 
markable men of his times. He was what few of our 
modern statesmen have been — the architect of his own 
preferment, without ever having had occasion to blush for 
the means which brought him forward to public notice. 
Born with a vast and comprehensive genius, which he cul- 
tivated with the most assiduous industry, he rose to emi- 
nence by his own talents. 

In one particular, however, we will do that justice to 
the character of Mr. Burke which it so preeminently 
deserves, by declaring that he neither encouraged nor 
fostered the libertine dispositions of the illustrious indi- 
vidual who honored him with his friendship and esteem. 
In many instances he attempted to dissuade him from 
pursuing a career which must ultimately end in disgrace 
and ruin, and to which it was evident that he was led on 
by the example of his profligate companions, reckless, as it 
would appear, of the consequences resulting to the injury 
of his character as a prince and a man. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 91 

The argumentative powers of Mr. Burke were of the 
highest order; his sources of knowledge were universal 
and inexhaustible ; his memory was comprehensive and 
faithful, while his mind teemed with the most luxurious 
imagery, clothed in the most elegant language, and 
strengthened by the most applicable and brilliant expres- 
sions. It has been admitted, even by those who have 
most rigidly examined his pretensions to fame, that the 
splendor of his eloquence has seldom been excelled by the 
most accomplished orators or even poets of any age or 
country. 

Sheridan, the wit, the poet, the dramatist, and the orator, 
but the drunkard, the gamester, and the rake, was also the 
personal friend of the Prince. To the talents of Sheridan 
as an orator the tributes of admiration and applause have 
been as numerous as they have been just. And yet Sheri- 
dan as a moralist was as defective in principle as he was 
incorrect in practice. Sheridan, poor, deserted, diseased, 
and wretched, expired in loneliness and misery; and so 
died, not purely, as has been alleged, a martyr to his love 
of liberty, but rather to his vices and licentiousness. An 
acquaintance, therefore, with Sheridan, whilst it could not 
fail of improving the judgment, enlivening the fancy, and 
heightening the imagination and wit of the dullest of his 
associates, yet it could not also fail of injuring that high 
tone of morals with which the heart of a monarch of a 
Christian country should be especially inspired. In the 
amours of Mr. Sheridan the name of the Prince was con- 
stantly involved, and this circumstance additionally 
tended to the permanent injury of his character and 
reputation. 

Of the Prince's intimacy with Sheridan many pleasant 
and, we regret to add, painful anecdotes are related. The 
following will show the familiar footing on which they stood 
with each other: The Prince became a member of Brookes' 



92 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

Club, in order to have more frequent intercourse with Mr. 
Fox. The Prince was the only person who was ever admit- 
ted without a ballot, and on his first appearance every 
member rose and welcomed him by acclamation. When 
Fox first became acquainted with Sheridan, he was so 
delighted with his company and brilliant conversation that 
he became exceedingly anxious to get him admitted as a 
member of Brookes 7 Club, which he frequented every night. 
Sheridan was frequently proposed, but as often had one 
black ball in the ballot, which disqualified him. At length, 
the balls being marked, the hostile ball was traced to old 
George Selwyn, a stickler for aristocracy. Sheridan was 
apprised of this, and desired that his name might be put up 
again, and that the further conduct of the matter might be 
left to himself. Accordingly, on the evening that he was 
to be balloted for, Sheridan arrived at Brookes', arm in arm 
with the Prince, just ten minutes before the balloting began. 
Being shown into the candidates' waiting room, the waiter 
was ordered to tell Mr. Selwyn that the Prince desired to 
speak with him below immediately 5 Selwyn obeyed the 
summons without delay, and Sheridan, to whom he had no 
personal dislike, entertained him for half an hour with a 
political story, which interested him very much, but which, 
of course, had no foundation in truth. During Selwyn's 
absence the balloting went on, and Sheridan was chosen, 
which circumstance was announced to himself and the 
Prince by the waiter with the preconcerted signal of strok- 
ing his chin with his hand. Sheridan immediately got up, 
and apologizing for an absence of a few minutes, told Mr. 
Selwyn that the Prince would finish the narrative, the catas- 
trophe of which he would find very remarkable. 

Sheridan now went up stairs, was introduced to and wel- 
comed by the club, and was soon in all his glory. The 
Prince in the meantime was left in no very enviable situa- 
tion, for he had not the least idea of being left to conclude 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 93 

the story, the thread of which (if it had a thread) he had 
entirely forgotten, or which, perhaps, his eagerness to serve 
Sheridan's cause prevented him from listening to with suffi- 
cient attention to take up where Sheridan had dropped it. 
Still, by means of his auditor's occasional assistance, he got 
on pretty well for a few minutes, when a question from 
Selwyn, as to the flat contradiction of a part of the Prince's 
story to that of Sheridan, completely posed him, and he 
stuck fast. After much floundering to set himself right, and 
finding all was in vain, the Prince burst into a loud laugh, 
and exclaimed, " D — n the fellow ! to leave me to finish this 
infernal story, of which I know as much as the child unborn 
— but never mmd, Selwyn, as Sherry does not seem inclined 
to come back, let us go up stairs, and I dare say Fox or 
some of them will be able to tell you all about it." They 
adjourned to the club room, and Selwyn now detected the 
manoeuvre. Sheridan rose, made him a low bow, and said, 
" 'Pon my honor, Mr. Selwyn, I beg pardon, for being absent 
so long, but the fact is, I happened to drop into devilish 
good company ; they have just been making me a member, 
without even one black ball, and here I am." " The devil 
they have !" exclaimed Selwyn. " Facts speak for them- 
selves," replied Sheridan, " and as I know you are very glad 
of my election, accept my grateful thanks (pressing his hand 
on his breast and bowing very low) for your friendly suffrage 5 
and. now, if you'll sit down by me, I'll finish my story, for I 
daresay His Eoyal Highness has found considerable diffi- 
culty in doing justice to its merits." " Your story ! it is all 
a lie from beginning to end," screamed out Selwyn, amidst 
immoderate fits of laughter from all parts of the room. 

Among the nobility who at this time were more particu- 
larly honored with the countenance of the Prince were the 
Dukes of Norfolk, Bedford, Devonshire, Portland, and 
Northumberland, the Earls of Derby, Cholmondeley, and 
Fitz william, and Lords St. John, Ponsonby, Craven, South- 



94 THE PKIYATE LIFE OF A KING. 

ampton, and Bawdon (afterwards the Earl of Moira,) who,, 
after i^assing the greater part of his life in the enjoyment of 
the respect and esteem of his fellow countrymen, became the 
object of their scorn and contempt by the mean and pitiful 
conduct which he pursued in the investigation of the 
charges which were brought against Caroline of Brunswick. 
In regard to the connection of His Boyal Highness with 
the other noblemen, he derived very little moral benefit or 
advantage. As the descendants of the illustrious champ- 
ions of freedom, or as men of great talents and acquisi- 
tions, they were fit associates for the heir apparent to the 
throne of Great Britain, but this assisted but little in dis- 
couraging the general penchant for the female sex, which, 
however it may accord with continental manners, ill agrees 
with the principles of morality, or the opinions and views 
of the Christian population. Example is unfortunately, as 
well as fortunately, the school of mankind. In the short 
space of three years the Prince had been introduced to 
circles as dissipated as they were gay, and as immoral as 
they were dissipated. His personal and mental endow- 
ments attracted for him the admiration of women distin- 
guished as much for rank and virtue as for duplicity, licen- 
tiousness, and infidelity. 

The residence of the Prince was now chiefly confined to 
Carlton House, it having been presented to him by his 
father, and it soon became the focus of conviviality. Bril- 
liant were the flashes of festive wit which enlivened the 
royal board, and some idea may be formed of the nature 
and spirit of those meetings from the following comico-trag- 
ico event which took place, in which the celebrated George 
Hanger was the principal performer. 

It is well known that the above mentioned* person was 
the particular companion of the Prince, and many of the 
youthful improprieties which he committed were ascribed 
to the company which he kept ; and particularly to the 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 95 

society of Sheridan and Major Hanger. On a particular 
occasion, when the latter was raising recruits, the King 
hearing that the Prince was taken from place to place by 
him and others in high life, collecting mobs and throwing 
money to them in large quantities, for the sake of creating 
the fun of seeing a scramble, and other worse purposes, he, 
with much feeling, exclaimed : "D — n Sherry, and I must 
hang — hang — Hanger, for they will break my heart, and 
ruin the hopes of my country." 

The following will be read as a rich treat to the lovers of 
fun and mischief ; it shows the extraordinary gaiety of the 
disposition of the Prince and the familiar manner in which 
he lived with his companions : 

It was at the celebration of the Queen's birthday, 1782, 
that Major Hanger made his first appearance at Court; 
and it may be said to have been a debut which proved a 
source of infinite amusement to all who were present, and 
to no one more so than the Prince, who was no stranger to 
the singularity of his character and the general eccentricity 
of his actions. Being a major iu the Hessian service, he 
wore his uniform at the ball, which was a short blue coat- 
with gold frogs, with a belt, unusually broad, across the 
shoulders, from which, his sword depended. This dress 
being a little particular, when compared with the full trim- 
med suits of velvet and satin about him, though, as pro- 
fessional, strictly conformable to etiquette of the Court, 
attracted the notice of the King and his attendants; 
and the buz, " Who is he V 7 u Whence does he come ?" 
etc., etc., was heard in all parts of the room. Thus he 
became the focus of attraction, and especially when the con- 
trast presented itself of his selecting the beautiful Miss 
Gunning as his partner. He led her out to dance a minuet ; 
but when, on the first crossing of his lovely partner, he put 
on his hat, which was one of the largest Kevenhuller kind, 
ornamented with two large black and white feathers, the 



96 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

figure which he cut was so truly ridiculous and preposter- 
ous that even the gravity of the King could not be 
restrained ; the grave faces of the Ministers relaxed into a 
smile, and the Prince was actually thrown into a convulsive 
fit of laughter. There was such an irresistible provocation 
to risibility in the tout ensemble of his appearance and style 
of movement that his fair partner was reluctantly obliged 
to lose sight of good manners, and could scarcely finish the 
minuet ; but Hanger himself joined in the laugh which was 
raised at his expense, and thereby extricated his partner 
from her embarrassment. This is, perhaps, the first time 
that the pas grave of a minuet has been considered as a 
mighty good jest, but there are moments when even the most 
serious circumstances serve only to produce a comic effect. 

The Major now stood up to dance a country dance, but 
here his motions were so completely antic, and so much 
resembling those of a mountebank, that he totally discom- 
fited his partner, put the whole set into confusion, and 
excited a degree of laughter throughout the room such as 
had never before been witnessed in a royal drawing room. 

On the following day the subject of the Major's ludicrous 
debut at Court became the subject of conversation at the 
convivial board at Carlton House, when the Prince pro- 
posed that a letter should be written to the Major thank- 
ing him, in the name of the company which had assembled 
in the drawing room, for the pleasure and gratification 
which he had afforded them. The joke was considered a 
good one. Writing materials were ordered and the Prince 
himself indited the following letter, which was copied by 
Sheridan, with whose handwriting the Major was not ac- 
quainted : 

" St. James' Street, Sunday Morning. 

" The company who attended the ball on Friday last at 
St. James' present their compliments to Major Hanger 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 97 

and return him their unfeigned thanks for the variety with 
which he enlivened the insipidity of that evening's enter- 
tainment. The gentlemen want words to describe their 
admiration of the truly grotesque and humorous figure 
which he exhibited ; and the ladies beg leave to express 
their acknowledgments for the lively and animated emo- 
tions that his stately, erect, and perpendicular form could 
not fail to excite in their delicate and susceptible bosoms. 
His gesticulations and martial deportment were truly admi- 
rable, and have raised an impression that will not soon be 
effaced at St. James'." 

This letter produced a highly ludicrous scene, which 
often excited a laugh when the Prince related it to his 
guests as one of the most humorous which occurred to him 
during his life. 

On the day subsequent to the receipt of the letter the 
Prince purposely invited George Hanger to dine at Carlton 
House, and it formed a part of the plot of the Prince that 
Sheridan should not be invited. After dinner the conver- 
sation turned designedly upon the leading circumstances 
of the late ball, and, on the Prince ironically compliment- 
ing the Major on the serious effect which his appearance 
must have had on the hearts of the ladies, he in a very 
indignant manner drew from his pocket the letter which 
he had received, declaring that it was a complete affront 
upon him, and that the sole motive of the writer was to 
insult him, and to turn him into ridicule. The Prince 
requested permission to read the letter, and, having 
perused it, he fully coincided in the opinion of the Major 
that no other motive could have actuated the writer than 
to offer him the greatest affront. 

The Major's anger arose. " Blitz und Holle!" he ex- 
claimed, " if I could discover the writer he should give me 
immediate satisfaction." 

B 



98 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING!-. 

" I admire your spirit/ 7 said the Prince. " How insult- 
ing to talk of your grotesque' figure !" 

"And then to turn your stately, erect, and j>erpendicular 
form into ridicule," said Mr. Fox. 

"And to talk of your gesticulations/ 7 said Captain 
Morris. 

" Sapperment P exclaimed the Major, " but the writer 
shall be discovered." 

" Have you not the slightest knowledge of the hand- 
writing V 7 asked the Prince. " The characters are, I think, 
somewhat familiar to me. Allow me to peruse the letter 
again." The letter was handed to the Prince. " I am cer- 
tain I am not mistaken," he said, " this is the handwriting 
of that mischievous fellow, Sheridan." 

" Sheridan !" exclaimed the Major, u - impossible — it can- 
not be." 

" Hand the letter to Fox," said the Prince, u he knows 
Sheridan's handwriting well." 

" This is undoubtedly the handwriting of Sheridan," said 
Fox, looking at the letter. 

" Then he shall give me immediate satisfaction," said the 
Major, rising from the table, and, addressing himself to 
Captain Morris, requested him to be the bearer of his mes- 
sage to Mr. Sheridan. Having written the note, in which 
a full and public apology was demanded, or a place of 
meeting appointed, Captain Morris was despatched with it, 
and in the meantime he (the Major) would retire to his 
lodgings to await the answer from Mr. Sheridan. The 
Prince now pretended to interfere, expressing his readiness 
to be a mediator between the parties, but at t.ie same time 
he contrived every now and then to increase the flame of 
the Major's resentment by some artful insinuations as to 
the grossness of the affront, and complimenting him on the 
spirited manner in which he had behaved on the occasion. 
The Major was determined not to be appeased, and he left; 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. T)9 

the room muttering, " D— n the impudent fellow ! grotesque 
figure ! perpendicular form ! gesticulations P* 

The Major had no sooner retired than the whole party 
burst into a loud laugh 5 the Prince had brought him to the 
very point he wished, and in about an hour Captain Morris 
arrived with Sheridan, who entered immediately into the 
spirit of the adventure. It was then agreed that Sheri- 
dan should accept the challenge, appointing the following 
morning at daybreak in Battersea Fields, and that Mr. 
Fox should be the bearer of the answer of Mr. Sheridan to 
the offended Major — Mr. Sheridan undertaking, on his part, 
to provide the necessary surgical assistance. 

On the following morning the parties were punctually at 
the spot; the Major accompanied by Captain Morris, Mr. 
Sheridan by Mr. Fox, the Prince disguised as a surgeon, 
being seated in the carriage which conveyed the latter gen- 
tleman. The customary preliminaries being arranged, the 
parties took their station 5 the signal to fire was given — no 
effect took place ; the seconds loaded the pistols a second 
time — the parties fired again — still no effect was produced. 

u D— -n the fellow!" said the Major to his second, u I can't 
hit him." 

"The third fire generally takes effect," said Captain 
Morris, who with the utmost difficulty could keep his risi- 
ble faculties in order, whilst the Prince in the carriage was 
almost convulsed with laughter at the grotesque motions of 
the Major. 

The signal to fire was given the third time — the effect 
was decisive — Mr. Sheridan fell as if dead on his back. 

" Killed, by G — d P said Captain Morris 5 " let us fly 
instantly f and without giving the Major time to collect 
himself he hurried him to the carriage, which immediately 
drove away towards town. The Prince descended from the 
carriage almost faint with laughter, and joined Sheridan 
and Fox, the former of whom, as soon as the Major's car- 



100 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

riage was out of 'sight, had risen from his prostrate position 
unscathed as when he entered the field; for, to complete 
the farce, it had been previously arranged that no ball 
should be put into the pistols, and that Sheridan was to 
fall on the third fire. The Prince with his two associates 
drove off immediately to town, and a message was sent to 
Major Hanger desiring his immediate attendance at Carl- 
ton House. The Major obeyed the summons, and he 
entered the apartment of the Prince with a most dolorous 
countenance. " Bad business this," said the Prince, " a 
very bad business, Hanger ; but I have the satisfaction to 
tell you that Sheridan is not materially hurt, and if you 
will dine with me this day I will invite a gentleman who 
will give you an exact account of the state in which your 
late antagonist lies. Eemain here till dinner time, and all 
may "yet be well." 

The Prince, from goodness of heart, and not wishing that 
the Major should have the painful impression on his mind 
that he had been the instrument of the death of a fellow 
creature, and one of the most convivial of their compan- 
ions, had imparted to the Major the consolatory informa- 
tion that his antagonist was not seriously injured ; and the 
Major looked forward to the hour of dinner with some anx- 
iety, when he was to receive further information on the 
subject. The hour came — the party were assembled in the 
drawing room ; " Now, Hanger," said the Prince, " I'll 
introduce a gentleman to you who shall give you all the 
information you can wish." The door opened and Sheri- 
dan entered. The Major started back with wonder; "How! 
how ! how is this ?" he stammered ; " I thought I had killed 
you ?" " 1ST ot quite, my good fellow," said Sheridan, offer- 
ing the Major his hand ; " I am not yet quite good enough 
to go to the world aoove — and as to that below, I am not 
yet fully qualified for it, therefore I considered it better to 
defer my departure from this to a future period ; and now 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING-. 101 

I doubt not that His Royal Highness will give you an ex- 
plicit explanation of the whole business — but I died well, 
did I not, Hanger P 

The Prince now declared that the whole plot was con- 
cocted by himself, and hoped that when the Major next 
fought such a duel he might be in a coach to view it. , Con- 
viviality reigned throughout the remainder of the evening 
— the song and glass went round — the Prince singing the 
parody on "There's a Difference between a Beggar and a 
Queen," which was composed by Captain Morris, aud winch 
is to be found in the twenty-fourth edition of " Songs, Polit- 
ical and Convivial" by that first of lyric poets. 

At the time when the Prince had satiated himself with 
the charms of Mrs. Robinson, a lady appeared in the hemi- 
sphere of fashion whose beauty was the theme of general 
admiration, and whose mental endowments were little infe- 
rior, if any, to those of the illfated Perdita. That a meteor 
of this kind should be blazing in the world, and the Prince 
of Wales not desire to behold it, could not be expected by 
those who were in the least aware of his propensities. Of 
the early life of this lady it becomes us not to speak ; it is 
only when she appears as one of the characters in the scenes 
of the eventful drama which we are portraying that she 
becomes an object of our notice. At the period, however, 
when her beauty became the theme of general conversation, 
she was living secretly under the protection of Mr. Fox, 
although, to all outward appearance, her conduct was regu- 
lated by the strictest rules of propriety and decorum. She 
was received into the first circles, caressed by all the liber- 
tines of rank and fashion, although the doors of the royal 
drawing room were closed against her on account of some 
little stain which was supposed to attach to her character, 
and which she could not wipe off to the entire satisfaction 
of the rigidly virtuous and illustrious female who then pre- 
sided over the British Court. Moving, therefore, in a sphere 



102 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING-. 

different to that of the Prince, he had no opportunity of 
obtaining a view of her in public, and he therefore applied 
to one of his immediate and confidential associates to effect 
an interview — and this associate was no other person than 
Mr. Fox himself. It was rather a startling commission 
for him, but at this period Mr. Fox so completely 
compromised his honor as to become the most active 
panderer to the passions of the Prince, and Mrs. Arm- 
stead was one evening introduced by him to the Prince 
at Windsor. The secret must now be told 5 from that 
moment Mrs. Robinson declined in his affections. She 
declares in her narrative that she found herself surrounded 
by enemies, and subject to attacks, but from what quarter 
they came she knew not ; she was assailed by pamphlets, 
but of the authors of them she was ignorant; she was 
libelled, caricatured, insulted, and abused, and all on account 
of falsehoods which were propagated to her injury by indi- 
viduals who, like the bat, kept themselves in the dark that 
their hideous forms might not be seen. And from what 
quarter did all these annoyances in reality proceed ? From a 
set of unprincipled and dishonorable men, who saw that as 
long as His Royal Highness was under the influence of a 
lady in no measure connected with their party, and whom 
they could not make subservient to their own personal 
views, their plans could not be carried on with that prospect 
of ultimate success as if that lady were supplanted, and 
one substituted for her who would fall into all their views, 
and through the medium of whom they could obtain the 
requisite information of the proceedings of the opposite 
party, who were endeavoring to obtain the ascendancy in 
the councils of the Prince. Mr. Fox and his party beheld 
in Mrs. Armstead the very individual who was to accom- 
plish this task, and every instrument was now set in motion, 
in the first instance, by base and insidious reports to defame 
the character of Mrs. Robinson, to undermine the attach* 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 103 

ment of the Prince for her j and, in the second, by a con- 
tinued course of annoyance and persecution to induce her 
to leave the country. Mr. Fox undertook to effect the lat- 
ter, and the successful manner in which he executed his 
dastardly commission has been already described. 

Mrs. Armstead now became the companion of the Prince, 
and Mr. Fox consoled himself for the temporary loss of 
her edifying society by the benefit which her influence over 
a His Royal Highness" obtained for his party, personally 
and politically. In a short time, however, Mrs. Armstead 
shared the fate of her exiled predecessor, when Mr. Fox 
kindly and honorably accepted of her again j and we shall, 
in the sequel, find, when the question of the Eegency came 
to be discussed, that he was travelling on the continent 
with her, pointing out to her the beauties of southern 
France and Italy, and recruiting himself from his career of 
profligate dissipation in the contemplation of her faded 
charms. 

The ingredients of which honor is composed we believe 
to be fixed and determined, however differently they may 
be amalgamated according to the natural character of the 
individual $ but we have minutely analyzed this transaction 
in all its principles, and we hesitate not to say that we 
have not been able to discover one single ingredient in it 
of which honor, even in its most confined latitude, is sup- 
posed to be composed. 

We pretend not to enter the lists with any of our cotem- 
poraries on the authenticity or originality of their respect- 
ive statements, as that is a question which must be decided 
by the public voice ; but we cannot refrain from expressing 
our indignation at the attempts of some of them to purify 
and bleach the character of the Prince by blackening the 
characters of others, whose greatest misfortune in life was 
their connection with him and his associates. We feel a 
becoming respect for any virtues the Prince possessed, 



104 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

which were allowed to be great and eminent before they were 
contaminated by an association with individuals so deeply 
steeped in dishonor and moral turpitude ; but we feel a 
higher degree of indignation for those who, to serve their 
still own interested views, could plunge him into a vortex of 
dissipation and of profligacy, which ultimately reduced 
him to such a state of disgrace, unparalleled almost in the 
history of princes, and which alienated from him the good 
opinion of that people over whom he was one day destined 
to rule. 

We have been led into these remarks influenced by the 
true spirit of impartiality, and with the sole view of doing 
justice to those characters which have been maligned merely 
for the purpose of courting the favor of "the powers that 
be," and to the utter falsification and perversion of the facts 
themselves, as they have been transmitted to us by indi- 
viduals whose veracity or testimony has never been im- 
peached, and also in open defiance of chronological truth. 
We allude particularly to the remarks inserted in the Court 
Journal of July 3, 1830, in which, in order to cast the odium 
of the affair of Mrs. Bobinson on her own shoulders, and 
to alleviate those of her royal seducer from the burden of 
the iniquity, an attempt is made to throw the hue of 
discredit on the whole of her statement by a pretended dis- 
covery of certain anachronisms and inconsistencies with 
which it is said to abound. 

In our extracts from the statement of Mrs. Eobinson 
contained in her autobiography, which was too long to 
insert in this work, we omitted the following passage : 

"At an interview with Lord Maiden I perceived that he 
regretted the task he had undertaken $ but he assured me 
that the Prince was almost frantic whenever he suggested 
a wish to decline interfering. Once I remember his Lord- 
ship's telling me that the Duke of Cumberland had made 
him an early visit, informing him that the Prince was most 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 105 

wretched on my account, and imploring him to continue 
his services only a short time longer." 

The remarks made by the Court Journalist on the above 
passage are as follows: "At this period the Prince was 
only eighteen years of age, Lord Maiden only twenty-three, 
and the Duke of Cumberland only nine. We leave the 
reader to judge of the lady's accuracy, and of the open field 
she had for the exercise of her talents upon such youths." 

By what epithet ought this error to be characterized % 
The Duke of Cumberland spoken of by Mrs. Eobinson was 
the husband of Mrs-Horton, on account of whose marriage 
the celebrated Act was passed in 1772, restricting the 
marriages of the descendants of George II. He is the 
identical Duke of Cumberland of whom a writer of that 
day observes, " To reproach a man for being an idiot is an 
insult to Almighty God." The Duke of Cumberland was 
simply then Prince Ernest Augustus, and had not come to 
the title, and, at the time of the connection between the 
Prince of Wales and Mrs. Eobinson, was certainly only 
nine years old. We leave this without any further com- 
ment [a schoolboy would be whipped for such ignorance. 

The next perversion of facts, which, according to the dic- 
tion of the Journalist,- throws discredit on the narrative of 
the lady, is to be found in the supposed anachronism which 
exists between the dates of the Bishop of Osnaburg leaving 
England, in 1780, and the dq^e of the letter in 1783. His 
Eoyal Highness did certainly leave England on the 30th 
of December, 1780, as related by the Journalist ; but, in 
regard to the date of the letter he seems to be ignorant 
that, although the facts took place in 1779-80, it was not 
till the year 1803 that Mrs. Eobinson writes to her friend 
in America (Colonel, afterwards General Tarleton, not 
Carleton, as the Journalist has it,) giving him a full and 
explicit account of the whole of her connection with the 
Prince. Mrs. Eobinson does not say that the facts took 



106 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING-. 

place in 1803, but she writes the account of them in that 
year, and thus the objections of the Journalist to the 
accuracy of the statement of Mrs. Eobinson again break 
under him. 

We cannot dismiss this subject finally from our atten- 
tion without passing our animadversions on the falsity of 
the statement of the Journalist — that the connection of 
the Prince with Mrs. Eobinson was broken off on account 
of the Prince's friends opening his eyes to her machina- 
tions, and thereby rescuing him from so pernicious a con- 
nection. 

Let us inquire who were those friends who stepped in 
so prudently and laudably to rescue the Prince from the 
predicament in which he found himself. They were the 
very men who had been the means of introducing Mrs. 
Armstead to him 5 who skipped about with the St. Yitus' 
dance of abhorrence at the moral turpitude of his connec- 
tion with Mrs. Eobinson, but who placed over their con- 
sciences the healing plaster of expediency when they 
conducted Mrs. Armstead to his arms. The name and 
temporary influence of the latter were a passport to the 
whole party to the convivial board of the Prince, to his 
bacchanalian orgies, and to a participation in scenes in 
which every fine and noble feeling of the heart— every 
principle of honor, integrity, and truth — was sacrificed on 
the shrine of personal emofciment. And in regard to the 
machinations of Mrs. Eobinson — with whom did she 
machinate, if we may be allowed the expression? Who 
were the men that she collected around her to work upon 
the credulity of u the simple, inexperienced youth ? " 
Where are the proofs that she committed an interested 
action by which the advantages of herself or any of her 
friends were promoted by her connection with the Prince ? 
She came to him impoverished, and she left him the same. 
His bond was restored to him — his trinkets, to the amount 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 107 

of the paltry sum of £100, were returned to liim. Did 
Mrs. Armstead do the same ? On the contrary, did not the 
bounty and the presents of the Prince furnish her with the 
means of enabling the individual, who had meanly taken 
her to his arms again on her repudiation by the Prince, to 
continue his habits of extravagance and profligacy % 
Machination implies a concert of action in particular 
individuals for the attainment of some specific end ; but 
we have not a single proof, during the whole of the con- 
nection of Mrs. Robinson with the Prince, that she com- 
bined or coalesced with a single person for the accomplish- 
ment of any interested view. Machinations were not 
committed hy her but against her, and they were deep, 
disgraceful, and degrading to the parties in whose breasts 
they originated. 

We now take our leave of this subject 5 we have given 
our feeble aid in rescuing the memory of a beautiful, un- 
fortunate, but highly gifted female from the odium which 
has been attempted to be thrown upon her character; 
faultless it was not. The temptations with which she had 
to contend were more than a woman's strength could 
conquer 5 and, if she fell, let Charity drop a tear upon her 
errors, and let them stand as a warning example to others 
whose misfortune it may be to be placed in similar circum- 
stances, and remember the words of our Master, " He that 
is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone." 

The political contentions which at this time agitated the 
nation, the profligate life of the Prince and his apparent 
subserviency to all the views of the opposition, tended to 
destroy the equanimity of the King's mind, and he fell a 
prey to habitual dejection, becoming silent, thoughtful, and 
uncommunicative, instead of evincing his customary equal- 
ity of temper, suavity of manners, and cheerfulness of dis- 
position. It must, however, be taken into the account that 
the King was now no more the gay, impetuous youth ; the 



108 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

cares of government had pressed for a length of time 
heavily on his shoulders, and the loss of the American col- 
onies had affected him deeply. The buoyancy of youth had 
yielded to the sobriety of age ; and, although he did not 
deny to the Prince the right to the enjoyment of the pleas- 
ures of life, yet he was constantly exhorting him to partake 
of them with moderation aud not to lose sight of the digni- 
fied station to which Providence had called him. The 
admonitions of the royal parent were listened to with 
becoming and respectful attention, but their effect was as 
transient as the characters traced on the shores of the ocean, 
which the next tide effaces, and they are lost forever to 
the view. 

The Prince repeatedly offended his father by the bold and 
unqualified manner in which he spoke of his ministers, 
depreciating their measures, ridiculing their talents 5 thus, 
" In the year 1781, which was a most inauspicious period for 
the British arms ; and the nation, getting tired of a long 
and inglorious struggle, vainly persevered to destroy those 
rational principles of freedom in our brethren across the 
Atlantic which we are so jealous to preserve and ready to 
defend at home ; at this time many were the -expedients 
proposed to bring about an accommodation, but the major- 
ity of them were more likely to perplex than to extricate 
our Government 5 the Prince, however, undertook to pro- 
pose a remedy, which would not cost much, would effectu- 
ally put a stop to the war, and give general satisfaction. 
The King, his father, demanded of him to state the nature of 
his projects ; the Prince, with great gravity, said, that three 
half crowns would buy three halters, and that one of these 
should be sent to Lord North, then Prime Minister, and one 
to each of his chief supporters in the Administration. The 
King was at first surprised at his boldness, but he imme- 
diately afterwards ordered this young counsellor to retire 
to his apartments and not to approach his sovereign until 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 109 

he had made a proper apology. History is silent as to the 
apology being made, but Lord North's Administration was 
dismissed in a few months, without receiving the halter ; 
and peace, with its concomitant blessings, was soon 
restored to Europe. Thus wrote a historian .of the time. 

We wish not to refer to any part of the life of George III 
during the melancholy period of his intellectual aberrations, 
but we cannot refrain from inserting the following truly 
pathetic counsel which His Majesty, in one of his lucid 
intervals, gave to the Prince respecting the character of 
those with whom he associated : 

u George,' 7 said the King, u keep good company ; me- 
thinks I am already dead. I solemnly conjure thee, George, 
keep good company. Be a father to thy sisters, and a hus- 
band to the Queen, thy mother. O George, she well 
deserves thy tenderness. Banish the unworthy from thy 
presence; they natter thee, and call thee good and gra- 
cious, and so they would the man that had dethroned 
thee. Princes are always good and gracious to those who 
fatten on their favors, and from their smiles draw omens of 
still greater spoils. 

" George, let the virtuous counsel thee. Study thy peo- 
ple's good; their interests are united with thy own. In 
their happiness thou wilt find thy truest glory. 

" And remember, George, thou art mortal ; the vices of 
thy manhood will plant with thorns the pillow of reflecting 
age. Be wise in time; and let devotion to thy God 
obtain a glorious conquest — the conquest of thyself and 
death." 

Such was the substance of the royal admonition. The 
Prince wept and retired, his bosom convulsed with contend- 
ing j>assions. The effect, however, was but transitory. He 
was so entangled in the chains of dissipation and of liber- 
tinism that he could not shake them off. As his appetite 
increased fresh objects were always at hand to satisfy it; 



110 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

and, to the shame of his associates be it recorded, that 
they were not always very nice in regard to the objects 
whom they selected. Of the trnth of this, a more striking 
proof cannot be given than the connection which he formed 
about this time with Mrs. Billington, the celebrated singer 
of that time. 

The exterior of this woman had something to recommend 
her to the attention of the royal libertine, bnt her manners 
were distinguished by the utmost grossness, and in many 
instances by the most positive indelicacy. To enter into 
any description of the life of Mrs. Billington previous to 
her connection with the Prince were to stain our pages 
with the delineation of scenes injurious to the interests of 
the rising generation, and at variance with those principles 
which we have laid down for our rule and guide in the 
accomplishment of the delicate task which we have under- 
taken. The exposure of vice may, in many instances, be of 
essential benefit to youth on his entrance into the world, 
as it is a monster which has only to be exhibited in its 
real and naked form to be despised and shunned ) but, on 
the other hand, it has its seductions and its blandishments, 
and they may, by talent and address, be so clothed in a 
captivating garb that the youthful heart, glowing with 
passion, may long to become familiar with them, and to 
partake of the enjoyment which their possession is sup- 
posed to afford. 

It was behind the scenes of the theatre that the Prince 
first became acquainted with Mrs. Billington, and at that 
time she appeared to be his chief inducement for visiting 
the theatre. Those who, like ourselves, are aware of some 
particular traits in the character of Mrs. Billington, and of 
the peculiar penchant which was her ruling passion in her 
intercourse with her favorites, must be well aware that the 
Prince was, notwithstanding his exalted rank and high 
personal endowments, not exactly the individual who could 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. Ill 

long enchain her affections. The vicinity of her dwelling 
to the Thames, it being situate at Fulham and immediately 
on the banks of the river, offered many facilities to the 
Prince to partake of the society of the fascinating siren, 
and to enjoy the delight of her musical conversaziones, which 
were held almost every night that her presence was not 
required at the theatre. 

This connection of the Prince was not, however, of long 
duration 5 the coarseness of her manners soon disgusted 
him, and he declared at last that the only satisfaction he 
enjoyed in her society was when he shut his eyes and 
opened his ears. 

We shall briefly state another amour which followed that 
of Mrs. Billington, and that was with Mrs. Crouch, also an 
actress, who was then in the zenith of her beauty. On this 
lady the Prince expended considerable sums, in one 
instance to the amount of £10,000, independently of a pro- 
fusion of jewels and trinkets, which were purchased at 
Gray's, to the amount of £5,000, and which, when, in a short 
time afterwards, a schedule of the Prince's debts was laid 
before the King, it excited so strongly his disapprobation 
and resentment, that he refused to interfere in the liquida- 
tion of his debts. Kelly, in his Eeminiscences, when 
treating of the life of Mrs. Crouch, studiously avoids mak- 
ing any mention of the impression which her charms made 
upon " His Eoyal Higness f but it is melancholy to relate 
that, after having squandered immense sums of money and 
exposed himself to the ridicule of his associates, he found 
that he had selected an individual who, although her per- 
son and form were beauteous, was so addicted to intoxica- 
tion that her breath became disgustingly tainted, which 
gave rise to the well known simile of George Hanger, com- 
paring her throat to a smoky chimney — foul and stinking. 

In addition to the sum above mentioned, he settled upon 
her £1,200 a year • but when the debts of the Prince were 



112 THE PRIVATE LIFE OP A KING. 

arranged previous to liis marriage, Mrs. Crouch's annuity 
was not recognized, as it was said no valuable consideration 
had been given for it. About this time the Prince and 
Earl Gray were suitors for the favors of the Duchess of 
Devonshire, after an understood separation from her hus- 
band (who had under his protection Lady Elizabeth Foster, 
the late Duchess). Earl Gray succeeded, and the Prince 
was ousted. The fruits of this connection was a daughter, 
a very accomplished lady. 

Since the days of Charles II, who gave Newmarket the 
ton by visiting it with, his Court, horse races have been one 
of the favorite amusements of the nobility and gentry, and 
at the period when the Prince of Wales became a sports- 
man the practice of keeping race horses was encouraged 
.by the first characters in the country. At this time the 
manner in which the Prince travelled to and from Brighton 
partook of the eccentric. He always had three horses to 
his phaeton, one before the other — in modern parlance, tan- 
dem ) the first horse was rode by a postilion, the other two 
managed by himself. 

He particularly prided himself upon the superiority of 
his racing stud. His horses w%re to be. seen at all the cele- 
brated race courses, and the Prince often condescended to 
honor Newmarket and other places of sporting resort with 
his presence. These amusements were attended with an 
enormous expense ; but no estimate can be formed of the 
amount /which the Prince incurred on this account, from 
the circumstance that the sums of money expended on a 
racing establishment, and the loss or gain of bona fide 
matches, bear no proportion to the sums that are hazarded 
upon betting speculations. With regard to the sums 
which he expended on betting, it is from the nature of the 
thing not to be expected that we should advance even a 
guess. The probability is. that the Prince, like most other 
gentlemen of the turf, experienced his share of the vicissi- 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 113 

tudes of fortune, and sometimes was a considerable gainer, 
and at others a considerable loser ; general report declares the 
latter to have been most frequently the case, but there was 
probably in this instance, as well as in many others, a large 
share of exaggeration, though it is likely that the candor 
of the Prince, and his well known spirit of honor, would 
expose him to some of the artifices of which the gentlemen 
of the turf have been accused, while his proud and dig- 
nified sense of propriety would not allow him to avail him- 
self of those advantages which others would not scruple to 
practise with impunity at his expense. Few characters of 
eminence have distinguished themselves on the turf who 
have not been suspected at one time or other of these unjus- 
tifiable artifices, and hence the graver part of the world has 
been disposed to view these sporting meetings with any- 
thing else than sentiments of approbation. 

That the Prince, on attaching himself to the sports of the 
turf, should have rendered himself liable to these imputa- 
tions was a consequence naturally to be expected from the 
equality that necessarily prevails on such occasions. Losers 
could no more conceal their chagrin when a Prince was the 
winner than they could when they paid their money to an 
equal $ and they well knew that this Prince was as liable 
to be deceived and imposed upon by his grooms, trainers, 
and dependents as any other gentleman of the turf 5 and, 
therefore, whenever the royal horses did not perforin 
according to their satisfaction, either by winning when 
they had an extraordinary opinion of their fleetness, or by 
losing when they thought they would prove deficient in 
spirit and speed, the result was the same; they attributed 
their disappointment, not to any accidental circumstances 
over which the Prince or his servants could not possibly 
have any control, but to some unfair manoeuvres on the 
part of the Prince and his dependents for the purpose of 
misleading the public judgment. The case of the Prince's 



114 THE PRIVATE LIFE OP A KING. 

celebrated horse Escape, and respecting which we shall 
have to enter into some detail at a future period, will fully 
illustrate the truth of the foregoing statement. 

In the meantime the clamor against " His Boyal High- 
ness n on account of the ruinous expenses incurred in the 
maintenance of his racing stud was loud and incessant; 
and, in order to palliate those proceedings, his partisans 
very injudiciously beheld, in the attachment of George III 
to the pleasures of the chase, the same good reasons for 
imputing to him an equal degree of censure, not consider- 
ing that a very wide difference exists between the two pur- 
suits. The chase is an exercise highly salubrious and 
manly, and it is totally distinct in its best features and 
characteristics from the pleasures of the turf. The former 
encourages not the ruinous spirit of gambling; and, 
although a person may be a member of a field of hunters, 
he may be still as select in his companions as if he were 
following a brace of greyhounds with his immediate friends 
on his own estate. It is the suspicious and questionable 
characters with whom, as a patron of the turf, an individ- 
ual is obliged to associate which tends to throw an imputa- 
tion upon him, however high and unsullied his honor and 
integrity may be in the general relations of life. In this, as 
in other cases which we have mentioned, the very zeal and 
anxiety evinced by the friends of the Prince to exonerate 
him from the general charges alleged against the patrons of 
the turf only tended to involve him deeper in the obloquy, 
and to raise the clamor to a still higher pitch against the 
course of life which he was pursuing. 

Surrounded as the Prince was at this time by gamblers 
of every rank and degree, his losses became immense, his 
embarrassments alarming and disgraceful. His nights 
which were not otherwise employed were spent at the faro 
table, whither he was often taken in a state of almost help- 
less intoxication, to render him the greater dupe of those 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 115 

who were then fattening on the unhallowed spoil obtained 
by their deliberate villainy. 

At this time there lived a Jew in Orutched Friars who 
had amassed a splendid fortune by his usurious advances 
to the extravagant libertines of the age. The exigencies 
of the Prince became oppressive to him, and every expedi- 
ent was adopted to obtain the necessary supplies for the 
extravagances of the day, however great the sacrifice 
might be. The channels from which the supplies had been 
hitherto obtained were completely exhausted, and not a 
farthing could be raised on the responsibility of any of the 
immediate associates of the Prince ; the whole of the party 
were actually in a state of the deepest poverty $ and Major 
Hanger, in the history of his life, mentions a circumstance 
in which he, Sheridan, Fox, an illustrious individual, and a 
Mr. Berkeley repaired to a celebrated tavern, then known 
by the name of the Staffordshire Arms, where, after carous- 
ing with some dashing Cyprians who were sent for on the 
occasion, the combined resources of the whole of the party 
could not defray the expenses of the evening. On this 
occasion Sheridan got so intoxicated that he was put to 
bed, and, on awakening in the morning, he found himself 
in the character of a hostage for the expenses of the pre- 
vious night's debauch. 

From such circumstances some idea may be formed of the 
depressed state of the finances of the whole party — their 
individual credit was far below par, and their chief and 
only expectation rested on the responsibility of the Prince, 
who had some sort of security to give, although perhaps at 
a very distant date. 

In regard to the Prince individually an immediate sup- 
ply was indispensably necessary, and Sheridan undertook 
to set on foot a negotiation with Moses Aaron, of Crutched 
Friars, who, on hearing that no less a personage than the 
heir apparent to the crown was to be the security for the 



116 THE PRIVATE LIFE OP A KING. 

advance, consented to supply whatever was required, but 
on such terms as could not fail to draw ruin after them. 

According to the arrangement made with Sheridan, 
Aaron was introduced to Carlton House $ and the follow- 
ing scene which took place between those two personages 
in the antechamber of the Prince, previously to their intro- 
duction into his presence, will throw some light upon the 
characters of the Prince's associates, as they were then cur- 
rent in the world: 

"Ah ! my old friend Aaron," said Sheridan as he entered 
the room, " how do you do V 

"I should be better, Mr. Sheridan," said Aaron, "if 
every man had his due. 77 

"Then, Moses," said Sheridan, "many a man would have 
a halter." 

" It may be so, Mr. Sheridan," said Moses, " you, I know, 
are a most conscientious man, and I daresay you speak as 
you feel. 77 

"Well hit, Moses," said Sheridan ; "but, hark ye, did 
you get that little bill done for me V 7 

"It was not to be done, indeed, Mr. Sheridan," said 
Moses. 

"No!" exclaimed Sheridan 5 " why, I thought that when 
my friend Pox had indorsed it that it was as good as cash." 

"No, Mr. Sheridan," said Moses, "it would not do." 

"Money must be devilish scarce, then V 7 said Sheridan. 

" Or," said Moses, " there must be something the matter 
with the credit of the parties." 

"The times — the times," said Sheridan, "are very sus- 
picious; but you can perhaps effect it for me by way of 
annuity V 7 

" But then your life, Mr. Sheridan, must be insured," said 
Moses, " and how should I stand then, if you were to have 
your due, according to your own statement ; and then the 
interest, what security have you to offer V 7 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 117 

" My honor, Moses," answered Sheridan. 

" That won't do, either," said Moses ; u it is quite thread- 
bare — it won't pay for turning." 

"But if the Prince joins in the security," said Sheridan, 
" how then F 

" That will alter the case," said Moses. 

"Then," said Sheridan, "let us go into the Prince." 

Prom the introduction of this Jew to the Prince may be 
dated a great portion of the serious embarrassments in 
which in a short time he was involved. A source was 
opened to him in which an immediate supply could at any 
time be obtained ; although, if he had not been hurried 
away by the impetuosity of his passions, Avhich left him 
not a moment for serious reflection, and by the pernicious 
counsels of his needy associates, he must have seen that 
every step which he took involved him deeper in ruin and 
disgrace. In one instance this Jew raised him £10,000 on 
a post-obit bond, to be paid qn the decease of his father. 
For this bond he received in reality but £7,500, the re- 
maining sum being made up in various articles, the most 
useful of which were, perhaps, two hogsheads of French 
playing cards, and three puncheons of excellent French 
cognac brandy, manufactured at a distillery in White- 
chapel ; a diamond cross and rosary — the said diamonds 
also manufactured in Houndsditch; and two hundred tea 
urns, some of which partook of the porosity of the filtering 
stone, and which were immediately disposed of to another 
Jew at a quarter of the price which the conscientious 
Israelite had charged the Prince. In about three months 
after the above transaction the Prince required a further 
supply of money, and these same tea urns found their way 
back again into his possession, and were disposed of at the 
same cost and sacrifice. 

The above is but one of the many ruinous transactions 
with which we are acquainted, which at this time marked 



118 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

the thoughtless career of the Prince. If some hoary, ven- 
erable friend of his parents expostulated with him on the 
inevitable consequences of such conduct, the effect was 
transitory — amendment was promised, but the promise was 
never kept. 

The following is the copy of a letter which was written 
about this time by the Prince to the Duchess of Devonshire ; 
and although it does not contain any of the high flown 
rhapsodies of an enamored youth, it tells enough to show 
what were the real sentiments of his heart towards her : 

" How little you know me, ever dearest Duchess, and 
how much you have misconceived the object of this day's 
dinner, which has succeeded beyond my most sanguine 
expectations ! It has almost, if not entirely, annihilated 
every coolness that has, for a short time past, appeared to 
exist between the Duke of Norfolk and his old friends, and 
brought ErsRine back also. m Ask only the Duke of Lein- 
ster and Guildford what passed. I believe you never 
heard such an eulogium from the lips of man pronounced 
as I this day have pronounced upon Fox ; and so complete 
a refutation of all the absurd doctrines and foolish distinc- 
tions which they have grounded their late conduct upon. 
He was most honorably, distinctly, and zealously sup- 
ported by Sheridan, by which they were most completely 
driven to the wall, and positively pledged themselves here- 
after to follow no other line of politics than what Fox and 
myself would hold out to them, and with a certain degree 
of contrition expressed by them at their ever having ven- 
tured to express a doubt, either respecting Charles or my- 
self. Harry Howard, who has never varied in his senti- 
ments, was overjoyed, and said he never knew anything so 
well done or so well timed, and that he should to-night 
retire to his bed the happiest of men, as his mind was now 
at ease, which it had not been for some time past. In 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 119 

short, what fell from Sheridan as well as myself was re- 
ceived with rapture by the company, and I consider this 
as one of the luckiest and most useful days I have spent for 
ages. As to particulars, I must ask your patience till to- 
morrow, when I will relate every incident, with which, I 
am confident, you will be most completely satisfied. Pray, 
my ever dearest Duchess, whenever you bestow a thought 
upon me, have rather a better opinion of my steadiness and 
firmness. I really think, without being very romantic, I 
may claim this of you'; at the same time I am most grate- 
ful to you for your candor and the affectionate warmth, if 
I may be allowed so to call it, which dictates the contents 
of your letter ; you may depend upon its being seen by no 
one else but myself. Depend upon my coming to you to- 
morrow. I am delighted with your goodness to me, and 
ever Most devotedly yours, G. P. 

" Carlton House, Friday night." 

The general obscurity which pervades this letter renders 
it very difficult to determine the particular circumstances 
to which the Prince alludes; but it may be conjectured that 
it had some reference to the celebrated contested election 
for Westminster, in 1784, in which Mr. Fox was a candidate, 
and who was chiefly indebted for his success to the extra- 
ordinary influence and exertions which were made by the 
Duchess of Devonshire in his behalf. That the Prince, 
however, should have so far lost sight of all respect for him- 
self, or that he could have so far compromised his love of 
truth, as to utter such an eulogium on Mr. Fox, as he 
himself expresses it, as never was before pronounced, is one 
of those traits of his character which it is very difficult to 
explain. As a politician, the Prince may have had good 
grounds to approve of the conduct of Mr. Fox ; but as a 
private man, fulfilling the common relations of life, there 
was, perhaps, no one in the whole circle of his associates 



120 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

less deserving of any eulogitim that could be passed upon 
him. In one instance, however, the Prince did resent the 
brutal conduct of Fox, and perhaps there was not any cir- 
cumstance that could give greater offence to the feelings of 
His Royal Highness than a studied rudeness to a female. 
During the celebrated election just mentioned, a few nights 
after Mr. Fox was returned, a grand supper was given, at 
which the Prince, the Duchess of Devonshire, and the most 
eminent of the Whig leaders were present, for the express 
purpose of celebrating the auspicious event. Mr. Fox was 
seated by the side of the Duchess of Devonshire ; and not- 
withstanding the utmost efforts of Hare, who was one of his 
most favored associates, he could not induce him even to say 
a few words of civility to Her Grace, biit he actually turned 
his back upon her, and would not utter a syllable. Piqued 
at Fox's conduct, Hare, who sat nearly opposite to him, and 
who was accustomed to treat him with the utmost freedom, 
took out a pencil, wrote three lines, and pushed the paper 
across the table to his friend. We shall not transcribe the 
lines, as they were too energetic, or rather too coarse, to 
allow of their insertion 5 but they adjured Fox, in language 
as strong as Maecenas used to Augustus when *ne wrote to 
the Emperor — " Siste tandem carnifex l n — to turn himself 
round to the lady in question. Fox calmly perused the bil- 
let, and then having torn it into small pieces, which he 
placed on the table, without appearing to pay any attention 
to Hare, he turned his back, if possible, still more de- 
cidedly on the person on whose behalf the expostulation 
was written. 

This conduct could not fail to attract the attention of the 
Prince ; and, addressing himself to Fox, he said, " Suppose 
you were to consult Buffon on the character of the indige- 
nous animals of this country, which do you suppose you 
would find to be the most finished brute T 

"I consider each," said Fox, "to be a finished brute in 
its individual character." 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 121 

"But," said the Prince, "the habits and manners of one 
brute are more coarse and savage than those of another." 

" That is a i)oint," said Fox, "which I cannot determine." 

" But it is one," said the Prince, " which every one in this 
company can determine ; for they have just had a specimen 
given them that no animal in brutish manners can exceed a 
Fox." 

To this celebrated man may be attributed the greater 
part of the profligacies of the Prince. Fox loved only 
three things — women, play, and politics ; yet at no period 
of his life did he ever form a creditable connection with a 
woman. He spoke of marriage as a chain which ought to 
be borne only in the decline of life, but that in youth it was 
an actual loss of personal liberty and freedom of mind. 
Sentiments of a similar nature arose in the mind of the 
Prince ; and although state policy might have required him 
to enter the married state, at no period of his life was he 
fit for it. It is, however, not a little remarkable that he 
was one of the most strenuous advisers of Fox to look out 
for some wealthy heiress as the only means of repairing his 
shattered fortunes. At this time he had completely dissi- 
pated every shilling that he could either command, or that 
could be raised by the most ruinous expedients. He had 
even undergone at times many of the severest privations 
annexed to the vicissitudes that mark the gamester's prog- 
ress, frequently wanting money to defray his common 
diurnal wants of the most pressing nature. Topham Beau- 
clerc, himself a man of pleasure and of letters, who lived 
much in the society of Fox at that period of his life, used 
to affirm that no man could form an idea of the extremities 
to which he had been driven, in order to raise money, after 
losing his last guinea at the faro table. He has been re- 
duced for successive days to such distress as to be under 
the necessity of having recourse to the waiters of Brookes' 
Club to lend him assistance. The very chairmen, whom he 



122 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING-. 

was unable to pay, used to dun him for their arrears. All 
dignity of character and independence of mind must have 
been lost amid these scenes of ruinous dissipation. He 
might be considered as an extinct volcano, for the pecuni- 
ary aliment that had fed the flame was long consumed. 

Among the heiresses who at this time evinced their 
anxiety to engraft their plebeian stock on some sprig of 
nobility was the celebrated Miss Johnstone, not less re- 
nowned for her wit than for the extent of her fortune. To 
this lady the Prince recommended Fox to offer his hand j 
but the latter was as ignorant of the road to gain a woman's 
love as a hermit of the desert. There was an uncouthness 
in his general demeanor which acted as repellents to the 
establishment of any permanent affection. In the Prince, 
however, Fox had a most powerful and an almost irresisti- 
ble advocate ; and on one occasion when he was pleading 
the cause of his friend, with the knowledge, at the same 
time, that Pitt had also shown some predilection for the 
lady, Miss Johnstone said, u I am afraid, your Royal High- 
ness, I should get into a pitfall if I were to marry Mr. 
Fox." 

"Perhaps that would be better," said the Prince, "than 
falling into the arms of a Pitt." 

" Better, perhaps," said Miss Johnstone, " in the arms of 
a Pitt than in the claws of a Fox." 

The profligate character of Mr. Fox put an end to this 
treaty of marriage ; and in a short time afterwards, during 
the celebrated trial of Hastings, Fox raised his eyes and 
his hopes to the Duke of Newcastle's box, in Westminster 
Hall, where usually sat Miss Pulteney, afterwards created 
by Mr. Pitt Countess of Bath in her own right, then justly 
esteemed one of the richest heiressess in the kingdom. After 
exhibiting his powers of oratory as a public man in the 
manager's box below he sometimes ascended in his private 
capacity to try the effect of his eloquence under the char- 



THE PBIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 123 

acter of a lover. The Prince and all his friends aided a 
cause which, by rendering Fox independent in his fortune, 
would have healed the wounds inflicted by his early indis- 
cretions. General Fitzpatrick usually kept a place for him 
near the lady, and for some time the courtship assumed so 
--auspicious an appearance that Hare one day, speculating 
on the probable issue of the marriage, said with admirable 
humor, "that they would be inevitably duns, with black 
manes and tails," alluding to the lady's fair complexion 
and red hair, contrasted with the dark hue of Mr. Fox. 
The affair, however, ultimately went off like the former, and 
Mr. Fox at length entered the married state with the Mrs. 
Armstead of ci-devant notoriety. 

It would be useless to pretend that the associates of the 
Prince of Wales were selected by him from a manly confi- 
dence in his own capacity for repelling vice and resisting 
the temptations of the profligate. We do not wish to 
press too hard upon the weakness of human nature, nor 
insist upon it as an argument of anger as of sorrow that 
the Prince before his twentieth year was supposed to have 
been initiated in all the vices by which an affluent and 
corrupt society is infested. The gaming table, which ex- 
hausts the most immeasurable resources, creating and feed- 
ing the vilest passions, was familiar to the Prince, even 
before his majority. The immense losses which he sus- 
tained at the gaming table were not always the conse- 
quences of ill luck. Schemes were devised by which a heavy 
drain was made upon his finances, and he became eventually 
the dupe of a set of titled sharpers, who, by acts of the 
most deliberate villany, reduced him to a state of compar- 
ative pauperism. The celebrated wager of the turkey and 
goose race well illustrates the inventive genius of these 
associates, who never missed an opportunity of swindling 
the Prince. 

During one of the convivial parties at Carlton House, 



124 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

George Hanger designedly introduced the subject of the 
travelling qualifications of the turkey and the goose ; and 
he pronounced it as his opinion (although directly contrary 
to his real one) that the turkey would outstrip the goose. 
The Prince, who placed great reliance on the judgment of 
George Hanger on subjects of that nature, backed the opin- 
ion of Hanger ; and, as it may be supposed, there were 
some of the party who were willing to espouse the part of 
the goose. The dispute ended in the Prince making a 
match of twenty turkeys against twenty geese for a dis- 
tance of ten miles — the competitors to start at four o'clock 
in the afternoon. The race was to be run for £500 $ and 
as George Hanger and the turkey party hesitated not to 
lay two to one in favor of their bird, the Prince did the 
same to a considerable amount, not in the least suspecting 
that the whole was a deep laid plan to extract a sum of 
money from his pockets, for his chance of winning from 
the natural propensity of the turkey, was wholly out of the 
question. The Prince took great interest in this extraordi- 
nary wager, and deputed George Hanger to select twenty 
of the most wholesome and high feathered birds which 
could.be procured $ and, on the day appointed, the Prince 
and his party of turkeys, and Mr. Berkeley and his party 
of geese, set off to decide the match. For the first three 
hours everything seemed to indicate that the turkeys 
would be the winners, as they were then two miles in 
advance of the geese ; but as night came on the turkeys 
began to stretch out their necks towards the branches of 
the trees which lined the sides of the road ; in vain the 
Prince attempted to urge them on with his pole, to which a 
bit of red cloth was attached $ in vain George Hanger dis- 
lodged one from its roosting place, before he saw three or 
four others comfortably perching among the branches — 
in vain was the barley strewn upon the road, no art, no 
stratagem, no compulsion could prevent them taking to 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 125 

their roosting place ; whilst, in the meantime, the geese 
came waddling on, and in a short time passed the turkey 
party, who were all busy in the trees dislodging their obsti- 
nate birds ; but as to any farther progress it was found 
impossible, and the geese were declared the winners. 

Trifling as this circumstance may appear, it will have the 
tendency of exposing the characters of the intimates of the 
Prince, and the singular expedients to which they had 
recourse to restore their shattered fortunes at the expense 
of his character and his fortune. 

Connected with this period many stories have been told 
of sallies of conduct, of various features of character — some 
distinguished by their extreme eccentricity, and others by 
those wanton deviations from the strict line of morality — 
which, however, may be said less or more of every youth 
of high expectations or great possessions. The Prince was 
fond of seeing society in its various grades, and, like his 
prototype of old, Henry Y, sometimes went incog, to places 
where his presence was least expected. A public house in 
Gray's Inn Lane had become, in some degree, celebrated for 
its Burton ale ; and the Prince, wishing to taste it, took 
with him the Groom of the Stole, the first Lord Southamp- 
ton, and, walking into the house, they called for some Bur- 
ton ale. After they had sat, however, for a short time, 
some one recognized the Prince. The Prince, finding he 
was discovered, abruptly departed with Lord Southamp- 
ton, and, taking a hackney coach, they returned to Carlton 
House. The neighbors were, a few days afterwards, sur- 
prised by the Prince's crest being splendidly put up at the 
public house alluded to, with the inscription of " Purveyor 
Burton Ale to His Boyal Highness the Prince of Wales ;" 
the landlord of the house so describing himself in conse- 
quence of the royal visit. 

This "most noble Prince" also patronized the very lowest 
dens of infamy in London, and visited, not always incog. 



126 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 



either, some of the most noted houses of ill fame, in which 
large cities like London abound. There is a narrow court lead- 
ing out of King street, St. James', and quite contiguous to 
the Palace, which contains a house still occupied at the pres- 
ent day by the vilest of public women, over whose portal 
is the royal coat of arms, as much as to say, u Under the 
patronage of the royal family." The proprietor, or pro- 
prietress, claims the right to use this powerful emblem from 
the fact that the establishment was once " patronized " by 
George, Prince of Wales. The writer saw this house and 
sign while residing in London in 1850. He was told by 
the person who showed him the locality that there were 
similar signs over like establishments in other parts of 
London. 




"Under the Patronage or the Royal Family." 




MAKY ANNE, WIPE OF GEORGE IV BY THE LAWS OF GOD AND THE CHURCH. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 127 



(RUyta Jmtrtft. 



One night at the opera the Prince beheld in Lady Sef- 
ton's box a lady of most exquisite beauty, and at once 
became ardently enamored. This lady was Mrs. Fitzherbert, 
whose connection afterwards with the heir apparent created 
such a controversy in Parliament and throughout the 
realm — of which hereafter. 

In treating of this lady we will follow the memoirs given 
of her by her relative, Lord Stourton, who obtained all the 
facts from the lady herself, and which fully establish the 
disputed point — her lawful marriage to George, Prince of 
Wales, consequently the rightful and legitimate Queen to 
the throne of England.* We know the latter observation 
will create comment with monarchists and sticklers of the 
"divine right of kings f still the fact remains. Lord 
Stourton labored long with a commendable devotion to 
rescue the fair fame of his relative after her death, when he 
felt her character as a virtuous woman was assailed, and 
to have the documentary proofs made public to establish 
this all important fact. He brought to light valuable doc- 
uments which forever set at rest this disputed question.! 

When the Prince first became acquainted with Mrs. 
Fitzherbert she was residing at that beautiful and pictur- 
esque locality, Eichmond Hill. She was the original of the 

* Memoirs of Mrs. Fitzherbert, by Hon. Charles Langdale. Published by 
Richard Bentley. London, 1856. 

f See the Hon. Charles Langdale's Memoirs of Mrs. Fitzherbert. Published 
by Richard Bentley. London, 1856. 



128 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINGc. 

popular ballad, which was sung throughout the country 
and also became very popular in America, " Sweet Lass of 
Richmond Hill.' 7 She was a widow with an independent 
income of £2,000 a year, surrounded with powerful, wealthy, 
and influential friends, by whom she was beloved and 
caressed.* It is, therefore, not surprising that she firmly 
resisted the assiduities and flattering protestations of a 
royal lover, who soon discovered he had not an inexperi- 
enced girl whose head could be readily turned by the allure- 
ment of a princely suitor. She had been through hymeneal 
halls and the nuptial chamber on two occasions, being twice 
a widow, so matrimony had no especial novelties for her, 
and he had to resort to other means than those usually- 
resorted to in his ordinary seductions; but all in vain — the 
beautiful and discreet widow repulsed him at every point. 
She was somewhat the senior of the Prince, being born 
July, 1756, and married in 1775, during the troubled times 
that led to the American Revolution, to Edward Weld, 
Esq., of Lulworth Castle, county of Dorset, who lived 
hardly a year after. 

Thomas Fitzherbert, Esq., then wooed and won the hand 
of the young and fascinating widow, and married her in 
1778 ; after a happy married life of three years she found 
herself again a widow at the age of twenty-four. It was 
about four years after the death of her second husband that 
she became acquainted with George Guelph, our present 
subject, her third husband, who afterwards became, as we 
all know, the King of England. 

At first the lady would not listen to his declaration of 
" eternal love," but repulsed him coldly. He then became 
desperate and told her he would commit suicide. She 
would not yield. He then systematically bled himself, or 
had it done for him, that he might look pale, as if actually 
dying of a broken heart. Still she would give him no en- 

* Langdale's Memoirs. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OE A KING-. 129 

couragement. Moore records that lie next pretended to 
shoot himself, but managed to put the ball of the pistol 
through the head of the bed instead of his own head. Still 
the lady would not come to terms. 

His next move was to procure a dagger with which he 
essayed a stab upon his royal person, and they do say he 
actually drew some of " the royal blood of a Briton." He 
rolled upon the floor and tore his hair, striking his head 
with his clenched fists. He said he was going mad, and 
raged frantically ; swore he would certainly kill himself, if 
Mrs. Fitzherbert refused him. A commission was at once 
despatched to Mrs. Fitzherbert to inform her of the critical. 
(?) condition of the Prince, that her presence alone would 
save the valuable life of the heir apparent. Lord Stourton 
thus graphically describes the succeeding events as he 
gathered them from the lady herself : 

"Keit, the surgeon, Lord Onslow, Lord Southampton, 
and Mr. Edward Bouverie arrived at her house in the ut- 
most consternation, informing her that the life of the Prince 
was in imminent danger — that he had stabbed himself — 
and that only her immediate presence wonld save him. 
She resisted, in the most peremptory manner, all their im- 
portunities, saying that nothing should induce her to enter 
Carlton House. She was afterwards brought to share in 
the alarm 5 but, still fearful of some stratagem derogatory 
to her reputation, insisted upon some lady of high charac- 
ter accompanying her as an indispensable condition — the 
Duchess of Devonshire was selected. They four drove 
from Park street to Devonshire House, and took her along 
with them. She found the Prince pale and covered with 
blood. The sight so overpowered her faculties that she 
was deprived almost of all consciousness. The Prince told 
her that nothing would induce him to live unless she prom- 
ised to become his wife, and permitted him to put a ring 
round her finger. A ring from the hand of the Duchess of 

6* 



130 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

Devonshire was used upon the occasion, and not one of his 
own. Mrs. Fitzherbert, being asked by Lord Stourton 
whether she did not believe that some trick had been prac- 
tised and that it was not really the blood of the Prince, 
answered in the negative, and said she had frequently seen 
the scar, and that some brandy and water was near his 
bedside when she was called to him on the day he wounded 
himself. 

"They returned to Devonshire House. A deposition 
was drawn up of what had occurred, and signed and 
sealed by each one of the party, and, for all she knew to 
the contrary, might still be there. On the next day she 
left the country, sending a letter to Lord Southampton 
protesting against what had taken place, as not being then 
a free agent. She retired to Aix-la-Chapelle, and after- 
wards to Holland.* 

"In Holland she met with the greatest civilities from 
the Stadtholder and his family, lived upon terms of inti- 
macy with them, and was received into the friendship of 
the Princess of Orange, who, at that very time, was the 
object of negotiation with the royal family of England 
for the heir apparent. Frequent inquiries were made about 
the Prince and the English Court in confidential commu- 
nications between heF-and-^tEe Princess, it being wholly 
unknown to the Princess that she was her most dangerous 
rival. She said she was often placed in circumstances of 
considerable embarrassment ; but her object being to 
break through her own engagements, she was not the 
hypocrite she might have appeared afterwards, as she 
would have been very happy to have furthered this alli- 
ance. She afterwards saw this Princess in England, and 
continued to enjoy her friendship, but there was always a 
great coolness on the part of the Stadtholder towards her. 

*See an article in Harper's Magazine for July, 1856, vol. 13, page 201, 
" The Lost Queen." 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 131 

" She left Holland in the royal barge, and spent above 
another year abroad, endeavoring to i fight off ? (to use her 
own phrase) a nnion fraught with such dangerous conse- 
quences to her peace and happiness. Couriers after cou- 
riers passed through France, carrying the letters and 
propositions of the Prince to her in France and Switzer- 
land. The Duke of Orleans was the medium of this cor- 
respondence. The speed of the couriers exciting the 
suspicion of the French Government, three of them were 
at different times put into prison. Wrought upon, and 
fearful, from the past, of the desperation of the Prince, she 
consented, formally and deliberately, to promise she would 
never marry any other person 5 and lastly she was induced 
to return to England, and to agree to become his wife 
on those conditions which satisfied her own conscience, 
though she could have no legal claim to be the wife of the 
Prince." Lord Stourton says : 

" I have seen a letter of thirty-seven pages written, as she 
informed me, not long before this step was taken, entirely 
in the handwriting of the Prince, in which it is stated by 
him that his father would connive at the union." She was 
then hurried to England, anticipating too clearly and 
justly that she was about to plunge into inextricable diffi- 
culties ; but, having insisted upon conditions such as would 
satisfy her conscience and justify her in the eyes of her 
own Church, she abandoned herself to her fate. Imme- 
diately after her return she was married to the Prince 
according to the rites of the Catholic Church in this coun- 
try, her uncle Harry Erring ton and her brother being^wit- 
nesses to the contract along with the Protestant clergyman 
who officiated at the ceremony. A certificate of this mar- 
riage is extant in the handwriting of the Prince, and wifL 
his signature and that of Mary Fitzherbert. The witnesses' 
names were added. 

A letter of the Prince on her return to him has been pre- 



132 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

served, to supply any deficiency in the evidence of this 
marriage ceremony that the witnesses to the union were 
known ; and, moreover, the letter of the officiating clergy- 
man is still preserved, together with another document 
with the signature and seal of the Prince, in which he re. 
peatedly terms her his wife. 

Mr. Fox tried all his powers of persuasion to deter the 
Prince from marrying Mrs. Fitzherbert; he did not succeed, 
for the Prince had determined to possess the lady, and he 
knew, after every artifice had failed, he could only do this 
by a legal marriage, for the object of his passion on this 
occasion was a religious and conscientious woman, who 
could not he brought, by any human sophistry, to violate 
God's holy ordinance, " Thou shalt not commit adultery." 

Fox, in his argumentative letter, says : " I have stated 
this danger on the supposition the -marriage would be a 
real one, but you know as well as I that, according to the 
present laws of the country, it cannot.' 7 

To Americans this argument is simply ridiculous, looking 
at the question from the only standpoint of which the holy 
institution of marriage is capable, namely, a religious or 
Christian point of view. 

We, with every intelligent person, be he English or 
American, hold that no ordinances of man, no enactments 
of Parliament, can abrogate the laws of God. And when 
the Prince of Wales, in the presence of Almighty God and 
the priests and witnesses assembled, said, as he did say, "I 
take thee to be my wedded, lawful wife," Mrs. Fitzherbert 
became, in our humble, democratic form, Mrs. George 
Guelph, or, in monarchical titular parlance, Her Eoyal 
Highness, Mart Anne, Princess of Wales, his true 
and lawful wife. In this light — in this, her true position — ■ 
throughout this work we consider her. 

Mr. Fox, his confidant and friend, endeavored to dissuade 
Prince George from marrying, and wrote to him as follows:* 

* Langdale's Memoirs, page 1 5. London, 1856. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 133 

" December 10, 1785. 
"Sir: 

"I hope your Royal Highness does me the justice to 
believe that it is with the utmost reluctance I trouble you 
with my opinion unasked at any time, much more so upon 
a subject where it may not be agreeable to your wishes. I 
am sure that nothing could ever make me take this liberty but 
the condescension which you have honored me with upon so 
many occasions, and the zealous and grateful attachment 
that I feel for your Royal Highness, and which makes me 
run the risk even of displeasing you for the purpose of 
doing you a real service. 

"I was told, just before I left town yesterday, that Mrs. 
Fitzherbert had arrived $ and if I had heard only this I 
'should have felt the most unfeigned joy at an event which 
I knew would contribute so much to your Royal Highness' 
satisfaction ; but I was told at the same time that, from a 
variety of circumstances which had been observed and put 
together, there was reason to suppose that you were going 
to take the very desperate step (pardon the expression) of 
marrying her at this moment. If such an idea be really in 
your mind, and it be not now too late, for God's sake let 
me call your attention to some considerations, which my 
attachment to your Royal Highness and the real concern 
which I take in whatever relates to your interest, have sug- 
gested to me, and which may possibly have the more weight 
with you when you perceive that Mrs. Fitzherbert is equally 
interested in most of them with yourself. In the first place, 
you are aware that a marriage with a Catholic throws the 
Prince contracting such marriage out of the succession of 
the crown. Now, what change may have happened in Mrs. 
Fitzherbert' s sentiments upon religious matters I know 
not; but I do not understand that any public profession of 
change has been made. Surely, sir, this is not a matter to 
be trifled with ; and your Royal Highness must excuse the 



134 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

extreme freedom with which I write. If there should be a 
doubt about her previous conversion, consider the circum- 
stances in which you stand. The King not feeling for you 
as a father ought ; the Duke of York professedly his favor- 
ite, and likely to be married agreeably to the King's wishes; 
the nation fall of its old prejudices against Catholics, and 
justly dreading all disputes about succession. In all these 
circumstances your enemies might take such advantage as 
I shudder to think of 5 and though your generosity might 
think no sacrifice too great to be made to a person whom 
you love so entirely, consider what her reflections must be 
in such an event, and how impossible it would be for her 
ever to forgive herself. 

" I have stated this danger upon the supposition that the 
marriage would be a real one ; but your Royal Highness 
knows as well as I that, according to the present laws of 
the country, it cannot; and I need not point out to your 
good sense what a source of uneasiness it must be to you, 
to her, and, above all, to the nation, to have it a matter of 
dispute and discussion whether the Prince of Wales is or 
is not married. All speculations on the feelings of the pub- 
lic are uncertain ; but I doubt much whether an uncertainty 
of this kind, by keeping men's minds in perpetual agitation 
upon a matter of this moment, might not cause a greater 
ferment than any other possible situation. 

" If there should be children from the marriage, I need 
not say how much the uneasiness as well of yourself as of 
the nation must be aggravated. If anything could add to 
the weight of these considerations, it is the impossibility of 
remedying the mischiefs I have alluded to ; for if your 
Royal Highness should think proper, when you are twenty- 
five years old, to notify to Parliament your intention to 
marry (by which means alone a legal marriage can be con- 
tracted,) in what manner can it be notified ? If the pre- 
vious marriage is mentioned or owned, will it not be said 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KTNG-. 135 

that you have set at defiance the laws of your country ; and 
that you now come to Parliament for a sanction for what 
you have already done in contempt of it % If there are 
children, will it not be said that we must look for future 
applications to legitimate them, and consequently be liable 
to disputes for the succession between the eldest son, and 
the eldest son after the legal marriage ? And will not the 
entire annulling the whole marriage be suggested as the 
most secure way of preventing all such disputes % 

u If the marriage is not mentioned to Parliament, but yet 
is known to have been solemnized, as it certainly will be 
known if it takes place, these are the consequences : First, 
that, at all events, any child born in the interim is imme- 
diately illegitimated 5 and next, that arguments will be 
drawn from the circumstances of the concealed marriage 
against the public one. It will be said that a woman who 
has lived with you as your wife without being so is not fit 
to be Queen of England 5 and thus the very thing that is 
done for the sake of her reputation will be used against itj 
and if I were Mrs. Fitzherbert's father or brother I would 
advise her not by any means to agree to it, and prefer any 
other species of connection with you to one leading to so 
much misery and mischief! * # # # 

Fox." 

In reflecting upon the character of the men who sur- 
rounded and advised the Prince on this occasion, we fully 
agree with Gait, the biographer of George, when he says : 
"We can only say that surely the kennels must have been 
raked for offal to enable some demon who hated the mag- 
nanimity of the British people to construct likenesses of the 
men then in power, and in their names sanctioned proceed- 
ings which the English language affords no epithets black 
enough to designate as they deserve."* 

* Gait's Diary of the Times of George IV, vol 4, page 133. 



136 THE PR T VATE LIFE OF A KING. 

This language is none too strong when we consider a 
man could put his pen deliberately to paper and advise a 
father or brother to recommend prostitution to a daughter 
or sister ! ' u I would prefer any other species of connection" to 
marriage ! Horrible ! No wonder the Prince went head- 
long to ruin surrounded by such — what? as Gait says, 
u the English language affords no epithet black enough to 
designate. 77 

The King of England is the head of his Church, the u de- 
fender of the faith" — that faith believes in the divine deca- 
logue as read in the forms of worship of the Church and for 
the use of his subjects, who in their responses are taught 
to say, " Incline our hearts to keep this law.' 7 £Fo King and 
Parliament can altar God's holy law by any enactment, and 
make commission of sin an exception to royalty ; with all 
their powers they cannot give force to " Thou shalt not 
commit adultery — except your princes ;" but this is what 
they have attempted to do by the Eoyal Marriage Act. 

Lord Holland, in his Memoirs,* also gives an account of 
the marriage ceremony of the Prince to Mrs. Fitzherbert, as 
furnished by the lady herself 5 " it was performed by an 
English clergyman. A certificate was signed by him, and 
attested by two witnesses — one a near relation of Mrs. 
Fitzherbert — Mr. Errington." The ceremony was performed 
in her own house in London, and it is known that other 
witnesses were present besides those whose names appear 
upon the certificate of marriage. 

"If any corroboration were necessary to substantiate 
facts, of which such proofs are extant, and to which there 
are so many unexceptionable testimonies, it would be found 
in the behavior of Mrs. Fitzherberb on many subsequent 
occasions, and in the uniform respect and attention which 
she has received from nearly all the branches of the royal 
family. 77 

* Vol. 2, page 140. 



THE PRIVATE LTPE OF A KINO. 137 

Lord Holland, elsewhere in his Memoirs, had already 
referred to the proofs that the marriage ceremony had taken 
place between the Prince and Mrs. Fitzherbert, and even 
that the former had, at his subsequent marriage with the 
Princess of Brunswick, quailed under its recollection. The 
Memoirs* say : " This manifest repugnance to the marriage 
was attributed by many at the time to remorse at the 
recollection of a similar ceremony which had passed between 
him and Mrs. Fitzherbert. The subsequent conduct of all 
the parties, and the treatment of Mrs. Fitzherbert by all 
branches of the royal family, even when separated from the 
Prince, have long since confirmed the suspicion. In truth, 
that there was such a ceremony is noiv not matter of con- 
jecture or inference, but of history. Documents proving it, 
long in the possession of Mrs. Fitzherbert's family, have 
been since June, 1833, actually deposited by agreement 
between the executors of George the Fourth (the Duke of 
Wellington and Sir William Khighton,) and the nominees 
of Mrs. Fitzherbert (Lord Albemarle and Lord Stourton,) at 
Coutt's Bank, in a sealed box, bearing this superscription : 
L The property of the Earl of Albemarle ; but not to be 
opened by him without apprising the Duke of Wellington,' 
or words to that purporfc."f 

But this was by no means the only circumstance in this 
delicate affair which made the greatest impression on the 
public mind, for the most serious sensation was excited 
when it was known that Mrs. Eitzherbert had been edu- 
cated in the principles of the Eoman Catholic religion. It 
was said, indeed, that she might have retracted those 
principles 5 but was that retraction, it was rejoined, even 
supposing it had been made, worthy to be believed ? A 
close and secret investigation took place as to the charac- 
ter and principles of those who were her immediate asso- 

*Vol. 2, page 153. 

f Langdale's Memoirs of Mrs. Fitzherbert, page 14. 



138 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

ciates, and they were all found to be members of the 
Eoman Catholic community, and some of them actually 
belonging to that most dangerous and intriguing set of 
men, the Jesuits. Was this person, then, a proper associate 
for the heir apparent to a Protestant throne ? Was it not 
a society fraught with the utmost danger to the religious 
faith of the future ruler of the nation ? and, therefore, it 
cannot be urged as a fault on the part of the people of this 
country that the impression which this supposed marriage 
made upon their minds was deep and alarming. They saw, 
in their glances into futurity, every reason to expect the 
horrors of another civil war; and in their zeal for civil and 
religious liberties some of them were ready, in case of the 
demise of the crown, to have taken up arms against its 
natural successor by way of antidote and precaution. 

Amongst this number was Lord George Gordon, then 
under prosecution in the Court of King's Bench for a libel 
on the Queen of France, and Count d'Adhemar, ambassa- 
dor from the Court of Versailles, and who, on his trial, 
commented with great freedom on the connection supposed 
to have taken place between Mrs. Fitzherbert and the 
Prince. On his being interrogated what particular motive 
he had for wishing to have the benefit of that lady's testi- 
mony, he replied, "that he had a conversation with Mrs. 
Fitzherbert in Paris relative to some intrigues of the 
French and British Courts, which he wished that lady to 
substantiate." Previously to his trial, his lordship called 
at Mrs. Fitzherbert's house, in order to serve a subpoena 
upon her, but he was turned out of doors by her servants. 
The newspapers of the day, adverting to this circumstance, 
observed that Lord George Gordon caused a letter to be 
delivered to Mr. Pitt, before he went to the House, acquaint- 
ing him that he had received a visit from Mr. Walter 
Smythe, brother to Mrs. Fitzherbert, accompanied by Mr. 
Orton. threatening to call him to account if he went to Mrs. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 139 

Ifttzherbert's again, or took any liberties with her name. 
To this his lordship made answer that he must still apply 
to Mrs. Fitzherbert, to himself, or to Sir Carnaby Hagger- 
ston, until a written answer was sent concerning the just 
title of their sister. His lordship thus concluded: "I 
think it my duty to inform you, as Prime Minister, with 
this circumstance, that you may be apprized of, and com- 
municate to the House of Commons, the overbearing dis- 
position of the Papists." 

The uncompromising hatred, which in the year 1780 had 
burst with such memorable and destructive zeal against 
the Catholics, now took fresh alarm ; and, on the rumor of 
a marriage between the heir apparent and a Catholic lady, 
probably would have flamed out into fresh excesses, equally 
pernicious and dangerous, had the spirit of the times been 
the same. But the dreadful riots of 1780, in which Lord 
George Gordon bore so conspicuous a part, were too recent 
for the populace to be propelled by a like cause to simi- 
lar acts of violence. His lordship had also lost much of 
his popularity by certain eccentricities in his behavior, 
though he had not then embraced the Mosaic ritual, which 
nearly altogether alienated the attachment of his former 
adherents. But, notwithstanding the disadvantages under 
which this once popular and formidable leader labored, it 
is certain that the notice which he took of the connection 
between the Prince and Mrs. Fitzherbert caused that affair 
to be more particularly discussed than it would otherwise 
have been. 

In the meantime there were not wanting many who be- 
lieved, or who were willing to believe, that the marriage 
ceremony had been actually solemnized ; and in the midst 
of this painful vacillation of the public opinion appeared 
the celebrated pamphlet of Home Tooke, in which he not 
only declared that the marriage did actually take place, 
but that he was acquainted with the name of the priest 



140 THE PRIVATE LIFE OE A KING. 

who performed the ceremony. He also attempted to prove 
that the marriage itself was a nullity, and consequently 
that, if Mrs. Fitzherbert were absolutely married to the 
Prince, she became ipso facto Princess of Wales, by which 
style Home Tooke addresses her throughout the whole of 
the pamphlet. 

This work caused a sensation in the country which can- 
not be described, and every expedient was resorted to 
which could check the circulation of such alarming intelli- 
gence. In regard to the marriage of the Prince with Mrs. 
Fitzherbert, on the ground of her being a subject, it was 
contended that it was not fraught with any danger to the 
country, from the well known facts of the different mar- 
riages which had taken place between the sovereign of the 
realm and a subject, and that such marriages had never 
been interrupted down to the very accession of the present 
family on the throne. Thus the two immediate predeces- 
sors of George I, as well as Elizabeth, were the issue of such 
a match ; and not only they, but the house of Stuart itself, 
which immediately preceded the house of Hanover, and the 
very sovereign under whom the house of Hanover claims, 
are the issue of the sovereign with the subject. The race 
of Tudor, also, which immediately preceded that of Stuart, 
and the very sovereign under whom the house of Stuart 
claims, are also the issue of such a match. Three out of 
six sovereigns of the house of Stuart, and three out of five 
sovereigns of the house of Tudor, were the issue of such 
matches, by which it appears that the majority, for the 
course of two hundred and thirty years, namely — six out of 
the eleven sovereigns immediately preceding the house of 
Hanover — were the issue of the sovereign with the subject. 

It was not, however, to the marriage of the Prince with 
a subject that the people of England appeared particularly 
to bend their attention, but it was to the religion of one of 
the parties that they looked ; and in this point of view it was 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 141 

considered an event of the greatest importance beyond any- 
•thing of the kind since the Revolution. It was the subject 
of discussion in all the Courts of Europe, and in England 
excited a sensation unparalleled in the extreme. 

Every possible attempt was now made to call into dis- 
credit the statement of Home Tooke. His " Letter to 
a Friend/' in which the marriage of Mrs. Fitzherbert with 
the Prince was asserted, was very difficult to be procured 5 
and his subsequent and very extraordinary silence, when 
he was publicly challenged to disclose the name of the 
priest and the place where the ceremony was performed, 
all tended, in a great degree, to calm the perturbed mind 
of the people 5 as they argued that his silence betrayed 
that he had no real and substantial grounds for the 
strong assertions he had made. It belongs not to us to 
investigate the reasons of Home Tooke for maintaining 
such a studied silence on a subject of such vital importance, 
and concerning which, if he had any proofs wherewith to 
confirm his statement, he could not have any good and 
valid grounds for concealment. On the contrary, from the 
well known political sentiments of the man, he was con- 
sidered as the very last who would screen the offending 
parties from the consequences of their illegal proceedings ,* 
or that, from any servile subserviency to the ministers of 
the day, or even to the sovereign himself, he could have 
been induced to withhold auy information which might 
tend to the ultimate benefit of the country. It was, there- 
fore, rather a triumph for the Prince's party that no ex- 
plicit declaration was made corroborative of the statement 
of Home Tooke in his pamphlet, although, from the high 
and overbearing disposition, and the sudden change which 
took place in the manners and conduct of the immediate 
relations of Mrs. Fitzherbert, it was evident that they con- 
sidered themselves as exalted in the scale of rank and im- 
portance, and, certainly it was argued, that such a sudden 



142 THE PKIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

accession of pride could not arise from the prostitution but 
the elevation of their relative. 

Among the immediate friends of the Prince, however, 
there were many who regarded his marriage with Mrs. 
Fitzherbert as an event rather to be rejoiced at than re- 
gretted, for, however irregular it might have been in its 
nature, it had still a tendency to withdraw him from the 
disgraces and preserve him from the consequences of vul- 
gar debauchery. 

Previous to the attachment of the Prince to Mrs. Fitz- 
herbert, the passions, it was well known, treated him with 
as little reserve as the meanest of their votaries ; and, 
under their influence, he was continually seen in those 
pavilions of pleasure where honor is not known and female 
virtue forever banished. It was, therefore, very fortunate 
for himself, and of course beneficial to the nation, if he could 
become stationary somewhere, and in particular with a per- 
son whose situation in life entitled her to every attention 
which the laws of his country would allow him to bestow. 
His exalted rank, as heir apparent to the crown, prevented 
him from entering into those tender relations which are 
open to the meanest; of his subjects ; and, although some 
fearful forebodings of the future might have afflicted cer- 
tain melancholy and scrupulous spirits in the contemplation 
of this singular transaction, yet, as a mere abstract gratifi- 
cation of youthful passion, and divesting it of all influence 
on or interference with the affairs of Government, it perhaps 
ought not to have been considered such a matter of great 
national concern as it was represented ; nor perhaps would 
it have been but for the indiscreet conduct of the Prince's 
party ; for when it was seized upon by them as the circum- 
stance to bind the Prince more firmly to their views and 
interests, it then became a subject of more serious consider- 
ation. That this was the case is very evident from the 
peculiar attentions which were paid to the lady by all the 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 143 

first families connected with the party ; nor should it be for- 
gotten that many of those women of distinguished rank and 
character, such as the Duchess of Devonshire, the Duchess 
of Bedford, and others of equal dignity, refused even to 
visit the Duchess of Cumberland till the Prince favored 
her with his countenance ; wliilst they received Mrs. Fitz- 
herbert not only with cordial kindness, but with formal 
honors. This arrangement, so generally known and ob- 
served, aided by a variety of artful insinuations, framed on 
purpose to steal on the public ear, gave a sanction to the 
opinion that the Prince had bound himself in as irrevocable 
a manner to the lady as the operation of forms and cere- 
monies of marriage could effect. But when, in a parlia- 
mentary debate relative to the payment of the Prince's debts, 
the nature of this connection was demanded, Mr. Fox 
repeated his declaration that no marriage had taken place, 
and everyone was satisfied with that declaration until Mr. 
Sheridan rose to reprobate the inquiry, and to give an 
eulogium of the lady, which by no means harmonized with 
the information that had preceded it. 

The contradictions of these two political friends and con- 
fidential adherents of the Prince were not easy to be recon- 
ciled. Mr. Fox had declared that a lady living with the 
Prince, to all exterior appearance, in the habits of matri- 
monial connection, had not the sanction of any canonical 
forms to support her ; whilst, on the other hand, Mr. Sheri- 
dan reversed the picture by representing her as a paragon 
of chastity, the possessor of every virtue, and the ornament 
of her sex, who was injured by the suspicions introduced 
into Parliament, and which had no foundation whatever but 
in the subservient fancies of ministerial adherents. Here, 
then, new difficulties arose respecting this once memorable 
but unfortunate woman, for she was now involved in the 
political arrangements and the views of the party, and was 
therefore to be supported by it ; but, on the other hand, she 



144 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

was the object at which the ministerial party directed their 
most envenomed shafts. 

In a letter addressed to Mrs. Fitzherbert at this time, as 
the Princess of Wales, of which Dr. Withers was the author, 
appeared the following energetic passage : 

" When the once celebrated leader of the opposition pre- 
sumed to sacrifice your Eoyal Highness to the interested 
views of the party, I was transported with indignation, 
because, from a situation the most honorable in the king- 
dom, it reduced you to a state of infamy and contempt. It 
proclaimed, in the face of day, and to the astonishment of 
the world, that a woman of birth, beauty, and independence 
was the strumpet of the Prince of Wales, and under this 
head I have no scale to measure your demerits. A poor 
disconsolate female whom a villain has seduced, or the want 
of bread has driven to prostitution, is an angel of innocence 
in contrast with Mrs. Fitzherbert." 

Mr. Fox, however, would not retract his assertion, nor 
would he give back the paper on which it was founded, to 
any solicitation. It does not speak much for the acuteness 
nor the penetration of the ministerial party that they did 
not see through the nice distinction on which the disavowal 
was made. 

Sophistry was, therefore, now the only resource which 
could preserve Mrs. Fitzherbert from that situation which is 
attended with irrevocable disgrace to the female character ; 
and, in consequence of this perplexing dilemma, the retain- 
ers of the party took no small pains to propagate an opin- 
ion that the wisest and best of men are governed by cir- 
cumstances, and that those of the Prince were peculiarly 
oppressive. His Eoyal Highness, they contended, who was 
excluded from the comforts of connubial life, by being pro- 
hibited from choosing a wife for himself by act of Parlia- 
ment, acted perfectly right in fixing on some one to supply 
her place; and if she were a woman of a previous irre- 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 145 

proachable character, good family, elegant manners, and 
maintaining her fidelity to him inviolate, the most exalted 
and respectable female characters in the kingdom were not 
only justified in receiving her, but would merit censure if 
they should hesitate to treat her with the same respect as is 
due to married ladies of their own condition. 

The flimsy texture of this argument was at once appar- 
ent to the meanest capacity ; and it tended in a very great 
degree to the injury of Mrs. Fitzherbert's character, and to 
render the Prince unpopular. Nor did this obloquy attach 
to thdse individuals only, but it was bestowed on every 
lady of rank who either visited Mrs. Fitzherbert or was 
visited by her. 

That the Prince was highly unpopular at this time may, 
in a great measure, be attributed to this mysterious connec- 
tion with Mrs. Fitzherbert, and to his avowed opposition to 
the measures of his father's ministers. The speculative 
mind, habituated to range with freedom and to meditate 
without restraint on all the events of life, will find, perhaps, 
as ample subject for grief and astonishment in the existing 
unpopularity of the Prince as he may find for admiration 
in the popularity of the King Ms father. A prince is 
placed by nature and by fortune in so high and favored an 
eminence above mankind — all his actions, and his very 
excesses, are beheld through so deceptive, or so favorable a 
medium — he is environed by such a splendor, resulting from 
youth and royal dignity, and expectation of future virtues 
— that it requires no small deviation from all that can excite 
attachment, or lay claim to esteem, in order to divest him- 
self, if not of the approbation, at least of the personal 
adherence, of the far greater part of those over whom he 
is one day probably destined to reign. 

We would treat the errors and excesses of the Prince as 
resulting more from the example of his profligate compan- 
ions than from any innately existing moral turpitude. 
1 



146 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 

Decorated as lie was with all the grace of personal elegance, 
improved by education, cultivated by letters, enlarged by 
an acquaintance with men, not often attained by persons so 
far removed from the walks of private and common life ; 
endowed with the powers of pleasing, and capacities of a 
convivial and social kind, not inferior to those so much 
admired in Charles II ; affable even to familiarity, addicted 
to the enjoyment of the table, and keenly susceptible of the 
charms of female beauty, and the seductions which accom- 
pany it — how, will the future historian ask, could a youth 
to whom nature had been thus liberal, and on whom every 
eye was naturally turned with predilection and partiality, 
have contrived, before he had almost fully attained to 
manhood, to shake the affections, and to diminish, if not 
forfeit, the respect almost inseparable from his person and 
his dignity ? It is an invidious, but it may be to future 
times a useful, task to explain how a Prince may degrade 
himself in the eyes of a deserving, a loyal, and an impartial 
people. If the following portraiture of the son of George 
III be true in its prominent features, the manner in which 
he degraded himself is at once explained. 

He may lay the foundation of this melancholy proof of 
his power by a departure from that sacred and primeval 
law, written by the finger of nature deeply in the human 
heart, of filial piety and obedience — a duty as inviolable, 
and as much exacted from the prince to the sovereign, as 
from the least and lowest subject to his parent; — a virtue ever 
found to exist with the greatest force and energy in those 
bosoms where nature has implanted all the most benign and 
kindly affections. He may accomplish that degradation by 
forming his nearest connections of familiarity and intimacy 
not from among the youth who naturally surround the suc- 
cessor to the throne, but from the most obscure and unprin- 
cipled individuals with whom a capital such as London must 
of necessity teem. He may give the final wound to his popu- 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 147 

larity, and to the fond partiality of a great people, by form- 
ing a connection of so ambiguous, so enigmatical, and so 
undefined a nature, that mankind, with anxious but fearful 
eyes, shall tremble to explore what yet they desire to ascer- 
tain 5 and if this extraordinary union should be formed 
with a person of a religious persuasion different from that 
of the country in which so strange a scene is acted, it is 
then only to contempt and ridicule that he can fly to avoid 
general disapprobation and resentment. These, and simi- 
lar acts, are the means by which a prince can descend from 
the proud eminence on which he is placed, by which he can 
compel a reluctant people to deprecate his reign, and to 
anticipate with terror that event to which they are usually 
prone to look with warm and pleasing expectation. 

We have been told that Henry V emerged from a simi- 
lar cloud which shaded and obscured him before he 
ascended the throne of England ; but where is the pre- 
tended similarity between the conqueror of Agincourt and 
the son of George III 1 Can the excesses of intemperance 
or levity, probably exaggerated to us by that magic pen 
which Shakspeare held, or however accurately true they 
may even be supposed, form any real resemblance between 
the two Princes? It is like the similarity which Burnet 
has ingeniously discovered between Charles II and Tibe- 
rius, only consisting in their common attachment to the 
pleasures of women. In one other particular the similarity 
will not stand good ; Henry V was a hero, but not a gen- 
tleman, associating with the greatest blackguards of the 
day 5 George, Prince of Wales, was a gentleman of the 
most finished stamp, and might, perhaps, have been a hero 
if the opportunity had been allowed him j but the similar- 
ity will again hold good in the latter instance, for he, also, 
associated with some as consummate blackguards as his 
dissolute age could produce. ^^ 

We have been led into these reflections by the true spirit 



148 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

of impartiality, which, although it may oblige us to repre- 
sent the character of this royal scion in all its darker 
shades, yet, that whenever it can "be done consistently with 
that indulgence which is due to the imperfection of human 
nature, we may be allowed to throw over it that palliating 
hue which may deprive some of his actions of the black- 
ness of their atrocity. In the delineation of the character 
of every man, whatever his rank or station in life may be, 
a just and becoming regard should be paid to the peculi- 
arity of the circumstances under which he may be placed, for 
it is a too common error to judge of another by the stand- 
ard which we may have formed in our own minds of the 
right principles of action, at the same time that we are 
ignorant of the motives which may have impelled the indi- 
vidual to the particular hue of conduct which he may have 
adopted. In the majority, however, of the actions of the 
Prince, particularly in his intercourse with the female sex, 
no difficulty exists in the delineation of his character. The 
facts speak for themselves. He had but one general aim, 
and, if that aim were attained, he did not seem to trouble 
himself about the propriety or the morality of the means 
which were employed for the purpose. 

To fix him to any object, however lovely and beautiful, 
appeared impracticable ; it was a monotony of life insup- 
portable to him, and he seemed to court variety with all the 
eagerness of a confirmed epicure at the luscious banquet. 
Not even the personal charms, nor the finished elegance of 
the manners of Mrs. Fitzherbert, could hold him within 
her chains, for their intercourse had scarcely commenced 
when the Prince received an invitation to dine with one of 
the Sheriffs of London, a celebrated distiller in White- 
chapel. The company was composed entirely of noblemen 
and gentlemen, the majority of whom were the intimate 
friends of the Prince. The Sheriff's lady was one of the 
celebrated beauties of the east, being in her person of that 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 149 

embonpoint which was so peculiarly the taste of this royal 
libertine, and the features of her face were of that digni 
fied and impressive cast for which the Grecian beauties are 
so justly celebrated. . Her eye beamed with desire and pas- 
sion, and her lip was not the first trap which, by its lovely 
pouting, had ensnared the affection of the enamored Prince. 
The lady left the table soon after dinner, and the Prince felt 
a vacuum which could not be filled up by the coarser society 
of his companions. Feigning some excuse, he retired 
from the table, and the worthy Sheriff, fearing that his 
return might be delayed by indisposition, considered he 
should be wanting in respect if he did not hasten to make 
his personal inquiries respecting him. 

There were several places in the house to which it was 
possible that the Prince had retired $ but there was one, in 
particular, in which it was highly improbable that he should 
be found, and that was the bedchamber of his lady. It was, 
therefore, the last which the worthy Sheriff visited j but, 
had he visited it at first, it would have saved him a great 
deal of trouble, and calmed at once his anxiety for the 
safety of his royal guest. There, however, in reality, was 
the Prince found $ and the Sheriff resolved on the most 
instantaneous punishment ; he drew his sword, and Eng- 
land would, perhaps, have had to mourn the loss of the heir 
apparent to her throne, had not prudence whispered to him 
to save him self by the m ost precipitate flight. The darkness 
of the night favored him, and he gained the garden 5 he 
heard his pursuers behind him, but no friendly door pre- 
sented itself by which he could make his escape 5 in an 
instant he scaled the wall, and he now found the adage to 
be true, that a man should always look before he leaps. 
The Prince did not look, and therefore he leapt into as vile 
a compound of dirt and filth as ever received the body of a 
human being, much more that of a Prince, within its odor- 
iferous bosom. In what manner the Prince regained his 



150 THE PRIVATE LITE OF A KINO. 

home, or into what hospitable dwelling he took refuge, to 
undergo the process of ablution, has not been communicated 
to us.* Associations are sometimes most rude and unpleas- 
ant monitors, and, in after years, his Eoyal Highness never 
heard the name of Liptrap mentioned, but he exclaimed, in 
the words of Shakspeare : 

" Oh ! but it has a rank, unearthly smell." 

It has been very inconsiderately and most erroneously 
stated by the panegyrists of the Prince that in none of his 
amours he ever wounded the feelings of a father and a hus- 
band, but that he always selected those objects whose 
virtue already stood on very suspicious grounds, and who, 
in the world of gallantry, were ready to yield themselves up 
to the highest bidder. It certainly would redound consid- 
erably to the character of this royal profligate, and divest it 
of a great portion of that black atrocity with which it is at 
present accompanied, if these panegyrists had drawn their 
information from the fountain of truth, and not, by a wilful 
perversion of acknowledged facts, laid themselves under the 
imputation of being the disseminators of a statement of 
which falsehood is its chief constituent feature. To those, 
to whom it has been permitted even partially to lift the veil 
which has been industriously thrown over the early excesses 
of the Prince, numerous are the instances which present 
themselves of the most heartless attempts at the seduction 
of female innocence, some of which were too successful, and 
others were only frustrated by the removal of the intended 
victims from the influence of his contaminating society. 
In defiance, however, of these panegyrists, who, by their 
indiscreet eulogiums, have only thrown an additional odium 
on the character of him whose virtues they profess to admire, 

* "We are indebted for this anecdote to Mr. R. 3 who was actually in the ser- 
vice of the Sheriff when the catastrophe took place, and who was one of the 
pursuers of the Prince when he fled into the garden. — Huish's Memoirs. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 151 

by challenging a scrutiny which it is very unable to bear, 
we could lead them to a very beautiful mansion, still stand- 
ing on the northern side of Kew Green, which, before the 
rude and heartless spoiler broke into its sanctuary, was the 
abode of as perfect happiness as this sublunary scene can 
afford. We could show them two doting and affectionate 
parents, watching over the rising beauty of their only child, 
and revelling in the prospect of her future establishment in 
life. We could show them how they trembled if even a 
breath of air passed over her which might sully the purity 
of her maiden innocence, or inflict a spot on the angel white- 
ness of her bosom. We could show them how that same 
lovely object, before the treacherous serpent polluted the 
chalice of her innocence, looked upon the world and found 
the world — a world of bliss to her — her wishes never stray- 
ing beyond the precincts of her paternal mansiou j beloved 
by and loving only those who gave her birth — her sleep the 
sleep of innocence — her gaiety, the happiness of conscious 
virtue. We could show them all this — and we could after- 
wards lead them to where those same parents are sitting in 
their now childless mansion, disconsolate and broken- 
hearted, the world a sickening desert to them; we could 
lead them to the tomb of their once idolized, now moulder- 
ing child, whose spirit was too pure to endure its weight of 
shame, or to support the scorn and contumely of the world. 
Her parents saw the roses gradually fading on her cheeks 
— the lustre of her eye getting dim and wan — the cherry 
freshness of her lips becoming pale and shrivelled — they 
saw the approach of death — their hearts sickened at the 
view, and in their morning and evening prayers they 
implored the vengeance of Heaven on the ruthless de- 
stroyer of their child.* 

To the indelible reproach of the female character, be it 
said, that, in the ruin of this lovely girl, a woman was the 

* Huish's Memoirs, Geo. IV. 



152 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 

principal agent ; and when we mention the name of Lady- 
Lade, we have given the synonyma for all that was vile 
and despicable in woman. This notorious female first 
beheld the light in Lukner's lane, St. Giles', from which 
she emerged, on account of the fineness of her person, to 
become the mistress of John Eann, who forfeited his life on 
the scaffold at Tyburn, and, after passing through several 
gradations, she was taken under the protection of the Duke 
of York. Wc, therefore, now behold her in her own box at 
the opera, splendidly arrayed, her whole ambition gratified 
in viewing lords, dukes, and the princes of the blood at her 
side, paying that homage which only superior virtue and 
attractive manners ought to exact. But it was in the 
Windsor hunt that this lady first attracted the notice of 
the Prince. She was then the wife of Sir John Lade, and 
to be well up with the hounds — to be in at the death — to 
drive a phaeton four in hand, and to evince a perfect knowl- 
edge of all the technical phrases of coachmanship, not an 
individual in the whole hunt could compete with Lady 
Lade 5 nor was she excelled by even Sir John himself, who 
was the tutor of the Prince in the art of driving, and from 
whom he received a pension, for his services, of £400 per 
annum. 

Born in a lowly and obscure station, and too long kept 
back in a state of plebeian insignificance, she at once shone 
like the sun piercing through a cloud, so that the strongest 
eye was dazzled by the blaze. Her former haunts were 
totally forsaken — her former companions no longer remem- 
bered, and she shone a comet in the bright regions of taste 
and fashion. There were, however, some fastidious females 
who, still adhering to the musty prejudices of their fore- 
fathers, refused to acknowledge the resplendent attractions 
of this fair paragon, and who even persisted, notwithstand- 
ing the royal favor and protection of the Prince, to exclude 
her from their circles. In these moments of her indigna- 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 153 

tion, at her prudish, rejection by the stiff starched nobility, 
she was apt to remember some of the phrases that she had 
learned in St. Giles', and whenever the Prince wanted an 
object of comparison in the vulgar practice of swearing, he 
was always wont to say, u He swears like Letitia Lade." 

It was in the company of this woman that the Prince, 
one day returning from the chase, met the beautiful Eliza- 
beth Harrington walking on the Richmond road, in the 
company of her parents. She was immediately marked out 
as a new victim, to his libidinous desires, and Lady Lade 
undertook to effect the introduction. It was under the 
pretence of sudden indisposition that this female panderer 
broke into the sanctuary of domestic happiness, and with 
so much difficulty was the task accompanied which she 
had to accomplish that she at one time relinquished it, 
despairing of success. But the Prince had seen the luscious 
fruit, and to retire without the enjoyment of it was at 
variance with his usual mode of action. He goaded on his 
emissary — he threw to the winds his vows of constancy and 
u unalterable love" which he had sworn at the altar to his 
wife, and, like Caesar of old, though on a far different 
occasion, he determined to realize the words veni, vidi, mci. 
And here the dark traits of this heartrending transaction 
begin to develop themselves. In all his preceding intrigues 
we behold him acting under his genuine and royal character 
as the Prince of Wales. There had been hitherto no con- 
cealment — no disguise, no fallacious hope of a permanent 
settlement in life, sanctioned by the laws, had been fraudu- 
lently held out. Hitherto he said, with the great poet; 

" In my bright radiance and collateral light 
Must you be comforted — not in my sphere. " 

On all former occasions he wooed as the Prince of Wales, 
and as such he conquered. The girl, whose every heart 
string quivered with passion for him, saw in him only the 



154 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

idol of her affection, the beloved, the irresistible, conqueror 
of her virtue. It was to her the landmark, the ultima thule, 
of her wishes, to be the acknowledged object of his love; 
but, in the present case, the announcement of a suitor in the 
person of the Prince of Wales would have been received 
with every mark of indignation and alarm. Every protest- 
ation of his unalterable love which he might have made in 
that quarter would have betrayed the lurking motive; and to 
some desert of the universe, untrodden by mortal foot, would 
the fond parents have removed their yet unsullied child, 
rather than have exposed her to the unequal contest which 
she would have to wage. Weakness, however, is insepar- 
able from human nature, and one of the prevailing foibles 
of Mrs. Harrington was an attachment to aristocratic 
society. The possession of a title was a passport to her 
good favor, nor did she stoop to discover how it was acquired, 
whether by hereditary descent, although originating, per- 
haps, in infamy, or whether it was the immediate grant of 
the monarch for services rendered to the country. The 
honor of a visit from a lady of title, although purely acci- 
dental, was an event not to be superficially passed over in 
the calendar of her life, and this lady of title lauded her 
daughter to the skies as a paragon of beauty ; and where 
is the fond, doting mother's heart that will not prompt her 
to throw her arms round the neck of the individual who 
lavishes her praises on an only, idolized child ? If there be 
a way to win a mother's heart, it is that; not that we give 
the female panderer sufficient credit for the possession of so 
much tact, or of such a consummate knowledge of the 
human character, as thus so skilfully to have seized upon 
the prevailing foible of the affectionate mother to effect her 
unhallowed purpose. It must also be allowed that, since the 
time when Lady Lade emerged as Letitia Darby from the 
purlieus of St. Giles', she had acquired what the French for- 
merly called the Menseances of society, although she could 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 15.5 

at any time shake them off, according to the grade of com- 
pany into which she might be thrown. To the vain fancy 
of Mrs. Harrington, Lady Lade appeared as one of the 
brightest stars in the galaxy of fashion 5 and as she seldom 
opened her month without alluding to the terms of intimacy 
on which she stood with this or that duke, or this or that 
lord, it was a decided point with the infatuated mother 
that it was a very fortunate hour of her life when the sud- 
den indisposition of her ladyship impelled her to seek for 
relief under her hospitable roof. 

The carriage of Lady Lade, drawn by four beautiful bay 
horses, and driven by herself, was now frequently to be 
seen standing at the door of Mrs. Harrington's house, for — 

" More than one steed Letitia's empire feels, 
Who sits triumphant o'er the flying wheels ; 
And as she guides them through th' admiring throng, 
With what an air she smacks the silken thong ! 
G-racef ul as John, she moderates the reins, 
And whistles sweet her softest strains ; 
Sesostris-like, such charioteers as these 
May drive six harness' d monarchs, if they please." 

Step by step did this titled demirep worm herself into 
the good opinion of this once happy family j but the event- 
ful hour came at last, and the fragile vessel, freighted with 
all their earthly hopes, was wrecked forever. The Har- 
ringtons were invited to partake of a friendly dinner, and 
to accompany her afterwards to the opera. The invitation 
was accepted 5 the dinner party was very select, there being 
only one gentleman visitor, but a more finished gentleman — 
one of more captivating manners and address — never graced 
a table. His attentions to Mrs. Harrington were of the 
most marked and affable nature 5 his attentions to her beau 
tiful daughter, distant and reserved. The vanity of the 
mother was flattered — suspicion was laid asleep j and whilst 
she was sipping \he palatable poison of adulation, Lady 



156 THE PRIVATE LIFE OP A KING. 

Lade was insidiously instilling into the ears of her unsus- 
pecting victim the most exuberant praises of the personal 
graces and manly virtues with which the Honorable Mr. 
Elliott, her visitor, was endowed. The female heart, un- 
hackneyed in the ways and stratagems of the world, is too 
prone to receive a favorable impression, which, although 
scarcely felt at first, increases in force imperceptibly, until 
it becomes at last the very life blood of its being, absorb- 
ing all other feelings into one — and that one is love, in all 
its full, its blissful, heavenly power. 

To the intriguing sjurit of Lady Lade, who, it is well 
known, declared it to be her pride and glory to make any 
other female as infamous as herself, it must be attributed 
that the Prince, in this instance, assumed a fictitious name, 
for she soon perceived that, as the Prince, Mr. Harrington 
would not admit him as the companion of his daughter; 
as, independently of his exalted rank, which precluded all 
idea of a matrimonial connection, his libertine excesses and 
his debaucheries were now the theme of general conversa- 
tion in the fashionable coteries, and excited the deep regret 
of the more moral and virtuous part of the community. 
There was scarcely a newspaper published at this period 
which did not contain an account of some libertine act of 
cm illustrious individual, or of losses sustained by him at 
the gaming table ; and it is a fact, for which there is the 
most undisputed authority, that in one week his name 
appears for three consecutive nights in the book of the 
night charges of St. Martin's watch house for riotous and 
disorderly conduct. His appearance in that character was 
always a source of great emolument to the guardians of the 
night, as they always made him pay a high price, not only 
for his own liberation but also for that of his associates, 
who, on these occasions, were generally not only sans soucie 
but also sans sous. 

In this machination against the happiness of a worthy 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 157 

family the intriguing party had nothing to fear but the 
recognition of the Prince $ and for that reason he regretted 
that, on account of a prior engagement, he could not accom- 
pany the party to the opera, but that he would join them 
after it at the supper table. It was here that the Prince 
was known to exhibit himself in all his irresistible power. 
The elegance of his manners, his sportive wit, his 
unbounded spirit of conviviality, the liveliness of his con- 
versation, and the extraordinary facility with which he 
knew how to accommodate himself to the tastes and pur- 
suits of those by whom he was immediately surrounded, all 
conspired to render him an object dangerous in the extreme 
to a female heart, and especially to one, who, having lived 
a life of comparative seclusion, sees itself at once thrown 
into a situation where all that is fascinating and alluring 
operates upon the senses, and leads, as it were, all the 
affections captive. 

To follow this amour through all its details would be to 
describe, on the one hand, all the arts and blandishments 
which the most confirmed libertine could employ to effect 
the conquest of female virtue $ and, on the other, the help- 
less contest, the unavailing efforts, the last expiring strug- 
gle of the writhing victim 5 it would be to depicture, on the 
one hand, the heartrending scene of the afflicted parents as 
they followed their beloved but dishonored child to the 
grave $ and, on the other, the heartless gaiety, and the reck- 
less indifference with which the seducer looked upon the 
wreck he had made. 

And, whilst these scenes were passing, the country was 
agitated to its remotest corner by the firm belief that the 
marriage between the Prince and Mrs. Fitzherbert had 
actually been consummated ; and, if one circumstance more 
than another tended to confirm that belief, it was the 
unreserved manner in which Mrs. Fitzherbert was received 
into the highest circles, and the blaze of splendor which 



158 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

surrounded her, not only when she appeared in public, but 
in the extravagant style in which she received her visitors 
at home. The veracity of Mr. Fox in regard to the dis- 
avowal of the marriage was exposed to the severest scru- 
tiny, and the following passage in Home Tooke's pamphlet 
only tended to excite still greater alarm in the minds of the 
English people : 

In his u Letter to a Friend,' 7 he says: a You agree with 
me that it is not irom the debates in either House of 
Parliament that the public will receive any solid or useful 
information on a point of so much importance to the nation 
— to the sovereign on the throne — to his royal successor, 
and to the most amiable and justly valued female character, 
whom I conclude to be in all respects both legally — really, 
ivortJiityj and happily for this country, Her Royal High- 
ness the Princess of Wales. 

" After the conversation that has been held in the House 
of Commons, and published in the newspapers, together 
with the discourse which has circulated universally through 
the nation, it would be a most ridiculous affectation to hes- 
itate, in so many words, to declare that it is reported, and 
by me on solid grounds believed, that His Eoyal Highness 
the Prince of Wales is married to the late Mrs. Fitzherbert, 
now his lawful wife."* 

And in another passage he says : " I consider the dis- 
avowal of this marriage to be itself an additional slander 
on a much misunderstood and misrepresented young man. 
I have no doubt, for he is young and a Prince, that some 
things might possibly be changed for the better in his 
conduct, but I will not believe at any time, and least of all 
in the moment and manner as reported, such a disavowal, 
be the marriage true or false, or anything tending to lessen 
the character of the lady, could possibly be authorized by 

* Unfortunately she was as much his wife as a Romish priest could make 
her. Memoirs of George III. Rev. George Croly, LL.D. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 159 

him. And although extremely disgusted with his politics, 
yet I have too much personal respect for Mr. Fox to be- 
lieve, upon the authority of a newspaper, that he was either 
the adviser, or silently seeming approver, much less the 
medium of such a disavowal. If such a measure had been 
thought advisable, or even necessary, upon any important 
score, yet Mr. Fox knows better how to time even his 
necessary measures. What ! at the moment when the 
payment of debt and revenue were the questions, then to 
get up and make this disavowal, and then to give it the 
appearance of sacrificing, on compulsion, a defenceless 
woman's character for so mean a consideration as a paltry 
sum of money — I will not believe it P 

The result of a strict analysis of the foregoing passage 
will be to show that there exists a very striking inconsist- 
ency in the arguments of the writer, compared with the 
boasted authenticity of his information, and it further 
shows that he really was not so thoroughly acquainted 
with the secret machinery of the transaction as he pro- 
fesses to be. Home Tooke, in his pamphlet, unequivocally 
states that he knows the priest who officiated at the mar- 
riage ; it is, therefore, not a little strange that he should 
be ignorant of the presence of some other individuals who 
graced the nuptial day with their presence, and still fur- 
ther, that he should take upon himself the defence of one 
of them, who, with the exception of the bride and the 
illustrious bridegroom, was the most conspicuous character 
of the party. Could he have been ignorant that Mr. Fox 
was himself present at the marriage, and that it actually 
took place in the very house occupied by that person in 
Grafton street ? If he knew that the Abbe Sechamp was 
the priest who performed the ceremony, why not openly 
avow it % Why pretend a knowledge of the fact, and yet, 
from some unaccountable reasons, refuse to make it public, 
and, what was still worse, so to throw over it the cloak of 



160 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

mystery, as if lie himself were the only depositary of the 
secret ? Was Tooke ignorant that Sheridan and Burke 
were both present at the marriage, and also Mr. Errington 
and Mr. Throginorton, the immediate relations of the bride, 
and that Mr. Fox — the same individual who in his place in 
the House of Commons disavowed the marriage — was the 
very person who handed the bride into the carriage when 
the happy pair set out for Richmond to spend the honey- 
moon ? It is not the least surprising feature of this trans- 
action, that Home Tooke must have known that the dis- 
avowal of Fox was actually true and false at the same time, 
and that the most consummate Jesuit, who ever in his 
monastic cell concocted a diabolical scheme to promote the 
interests of his party, could not have evinced more skill 
and ciinning than Fox evinced in this memorable disavowal 
of a marriage at which he himself was present. In order to 
prove the latter position, we will give an abstract from a 
celebrated pamphlet that appeared at this time, in which a 
committee are supposed to sit on the investigation of the 
marriage of the Prince, and the parties are regularly called 
in to give their evidence. 

It begins with the evidence of Mr. Fox: 

" Mr. Fox. 

" It is requested of Mr. Fox that he would inform the 
committee on what authority he asserted in his place that 
Mrs. Fitzherbert is now a widow ? 

" Mr. F. — I beg leave to decline an answer. 

u Does Mr. Fox consider that this committee is entitled 
to a clear, full, and satisfactory reply % 

u Mr. F. — I have every respect imaginable for the com- 
mittee, but I will not abuse confidence placed in me. 

u Mr. Fox may withdraw. 

" Mr. St. Omers. 
" Does Mr. St. Omers know the minister who officiated 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 161 

at the marriage of Mrs. Fitzherbert with her present illus- 
trious husband ? 

u St. O.— Yes. 

" In the opinion of Mr. St. Omers, were the rites duly 
performed and the union fully and effectually consum- 
mated ? 

" St. O.— Yes. 

" On inspecting the table of disabilities as set forth by 
the Church, is it the opinion of Mr. St. Omers that either of 
the parties labored under ecclesiastical disqualification ? 

« St. O— m. 

"Will Mr. St. Omers be pleased to state to the committee 
his reasons for asserting in his place that Mrs. Fitzherbert 
is a widow f 

" St. O. — The marriage is good according to the decrees of 
the Church, but of no force according to act of Parliament. 

" For what purpose then was the ceremony read? 

"St. O. — To QUIET THE LADY'S CONSCIENCE. HER 

favors were not to be obtained on any other terms. 

" In the opinion of Mr. St. Omers, was it manly, was it 
honorable, thus to impose on a woman of virtue ? 

" St. O. — I have nothing to do with other people's opin- 
ions. I certainly knew it was all a farce ; but her lover 
was impatient, and I approved of the scheme. 

"Is not the lady attached to some of Mr. St. Omers' 
party, and was it not expected that all her influence would 
be exerted to promote their cause % 

" St. O. — The question is improper. 

" Was there not a promise that the lover, on his acces- 
sion to the regency or the throne, would confirm the mar- 
riage ? 

" St. O. — Fox, I believe, told the lady something of the 
kind, but it was a mere expedient. 

" In the opinion of Mr. St. Omers, have not such dishon- 
orable transactions a tendency to lessen the power and 



162 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KTNO. 

destroy the popularity of princes — when the people of Eng- 
land are informed from such respectable authority that a 
person of the first distinction is capable of such deliberate 
baseness to a defenceless female, will they not be fired with 
indignation ? Will they not hold the ministers and advis- 
ers of such treachery in the deepest detestation ? Will it 
be in the power of venal panegyrists to do away the in- 
famy ? 

In one of the answers of Mr. St. Omers is contained the 
whole germ of this memorable affair. He answers that the 
marriage is valid by the rites of the Church, but not by the 
law of man, and it is behind this shield that Fox so art- 
fully defended himself, as we shall have occasion hereafter 
to show, when the question of the Prince's debts was 
agitated in the House of Commons, and whether the Prince 
was not actually disqualified from assuming the reins of 
Government, in the character of Eegent, on account of his 
marriage with a papist. Mr. Fox had the truth on his side, 
when he declared that the Prince was not married to Mrs. 
Fitzherbert, for in the eye of the law, and in the teeth of 
two existing acts of Parliament, his marriage with a papist 
was in reality a nullity ; but if Mr. Fox had been asked in 
his place whether the marriage was valid in the eye of the 
Church, and whether it had not been consummated in every 
respect according to the requisitions and the ordinances of 
the Eoman Catholic Church, he must either have commit- 
ted himself by the grossest falsehood, or he must have 
declared himself, and all those who were the abettors or the 
accessaries to the act of marriage, liable to the pains and 
penalties of a praemunire. But the denial of the marriage, 
in a political sense, was absolutely necessary, or the whole 
of the Government would have been thrown into confusion ; 
it was necessary, in a private point of view, as far as re- 
garded the Prince, for the Commons demanded a decided 
disavowal of the marriage before they would enter upon the 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 163 

question of the payments of his debts, which had now risen 
to an alarming amount, and the legal proceedings attendant 
upon them threatened to divest him of every portion of his 
personal property. In the acquiescence of the Prince, how- 
ever, to give up Mrs. Fitzherbert, at the suggestion of his 
advisers, for a stipulated sum of money, the public read a 
trait in his character which, considering the high sense of 
honor and the exalted sentiments which he had displayed 
on some occasions, they were not prepared to behold. He 
was reminded of the reply of the half civilized barbarian, 
Peter the Great, of Russia, to his uncivilized counsellors, to 
give up a man, not a woman, to the extreme necessity of his 
situation. "No," replied the Prince, U I can resign my 
dominions even up to the walls of the metropolis, for in 
happier circumstances they may hereafter be recovered, but 
the forfeiture of honor in a sovereign can never be retrieved." 
In the meantime, the manner in which Mrs. Fitzherbert 
was received in public was an enigma which appeared to 
baffle every attempt at solution. Her marriage had been 
publicly disavowed ; the House of Commons had expressed 
their satisfaction with such disavowal, and yet the public 
beheld in the train of this memorable woman females of the 
highest character, and belonging to the most noble families 
of the kingdom. She had an establishment secondary only 
to royalty itself, and in some instances surpassing it. She 
had her maids of honor selected from the junior branches of 
the nobility — she had her ladies of the bedchamber from 
some of the most exalted families of the country; the whole 
of the Prince's party knelt at her shrine, as if she were the 
fountain of all honor and emolument — she was the presiding 
deity of the sphere in which she moved — and the thousands 
of satellites by whom she was surrounded appeared to 
imbibe all their splendor and importance according as she 
condescended to let her light fall upon them. On the other 
hand, it was pertinently asked, " If Mrs. Fitzherbert is not 



164 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

the wife of the Prince — what is she, then V and, in regard to 
her reception in public, the following passage, which 
appeared in the Courier de V } Europe, excited considera- 
ble sensation, as it pronounced the opinion which was enter- 
tained in the foreign Courts of Europe on the existing 
relations between the Prince and Mrs. Fitzherbert : 

" La fable du pretendu manage de S. A. Mgr. le Prince 
de Galles a ennn ete expliquee en plein Parlement de 
maniere a ne plus laisser de doute. O'est une explication, 
qui est d'autant plus facheuse pour Mad. Fitzherbert que 
Ton a suppose des liens entre S. A. E. et cette dame, sur 
lesquels on n'avoit pas encore prononce. Jusqu'ici Mad. 
Fitzherbert a ete recue dans toutes les socie'tes, ou etoit 
invite le Prince, mais il ne sera guere possible aujourdhui 
qu'elle jouisse des memes avantages, a moins que cette premiere 
explication n'en entraine une autre, et que la pretendue 
intimite de S. A. R. ne soit presentee sous des couleurs 
admissibles en bonne compagnieP * 

We are aware that we are rather anticipating the thread 
of our narrative in the introduction of the following circum- 
stance, but the links of the chain which compose this extra- 
ordinary transaction are, in some parts, so complicated and 
entangled that we are obliged, in order to unravel them 
and to account for their apparent confusion, to call in the aid 
of some future events, from which only a proper explana- 
tion can be obtained. 

* The story of the supposed marriage of His Royal Highness the Prince of 
"Wales has at last been fully explained in the House of Commons, and in such 
a manner as to leave no further doubt on the subject. It is an explanation 
so much the more vexatious for Mrs. Fitzherbert, as a certain connection has 
been supposed to exist between His Royal Highness and that lady, of the 
exact nature of which no decisive information has transpired. Until now, 
Mrs. Fitzherbert has been received into every society to which the Prince 
has been invited, but now it will be scarcely possible for her to enjoy those same 
advantages, unless the explanation given in Parliament is not retracted by 
another, and which will exhibit the supposed connection of His Royal High- 
ness in those colors vrhich will render it sanctionable in the higher circles. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 165 

In the passage above quoted Mrs. Fitzherbert read very 
distinctly the opinion which was held on the continent of 
her connection with the Prince ; and that, consequently , 
under existing circumstances, she would not be received in 
the higher circles abroad with that respect and esteem 
which had hitherto been shown to her. And herein we 
read the reasons of her refusal of the splendid offer which 
was made to her, by the supposed authority of the King 
himself, of settling £20,000 per annum on her during life, 
on condition that she retired to the continent, and broke off 
all connection with the Prince. It was the wish of the 
nation that the Prince should marry, in order that the suc- 
cession of the crown might be insured 5 but his infatuated 
connection with Mrs. Fitzherbert appeared to stand as an 
insuperable obstacle in the way of his marriage, and, there- 
fore, her removal out of the country was considered as the 
only means which could lead His Eoyal Highness to comply 
with the wishes of the nation, and particularly with those 
of the sovereign, his father, who viewed the relation in 
which the heir apparent to his crown stood, in regard to a 
Catholic lady, with feelings of the deepest anger and resent- 
ment. 

The offer, however, of such a princely income was refused 
by Mrs. Fitzherbert on the ground that she was indepen- 
dent before her union with the Prince, and that a mere 
addition to her fortune should never induce her to break 
off a connection on which the chief happiness of her life was 
founded. 

Another attempt was, therefore, made to shake the reso- 
lution of the lady ; and this was the offer of the rank of an 
English Duchess 5 but to this Mrs. Fitzherbert replied, that 
a rank of that kind, however exalted it might appear, would, 
were she to retire to the continent, operate rather to her 
disadvantage than to her favor. The mere possession of 
it, considering that she had not been nor ever would be 



166 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

received as a duchess at the Court of St. James', would not 
procure her admission into any of the continental Courts, 
at which she would be regarded as rather the repudi- 
ated mistress of the Prince than a lady of exalted rank, 
worthy to be received within the circles of the foreign 
nobility. 

Still, there was one condition on which she might be 
induced to accept of the offers proposed to her ; but she 
knew well that it was a condition to which it was impos- 
sible to accede $ and that condition was that her marriage 
with the Prince should be acknowledged, but that it was 
set aside on the grounds of its illegality. She should then 
be able to appear at the foreign courts with an unblem- 
ished character, which were the only amends that could be 
made for her forced expatriation, and the relinquishment of 
that society which was her only solace in the painful trials 
which she had undergone from the calumniating disposi- 
tion of the world. 

That the Prince's party were at the bottom of this imprac- 
ticable condition may be perceived $ the marriage of the 
Prince, according to the constitutional laws of the country, 
was not an event at all favorable to their views, although 
they were, at the same time, aware that it was an event in 
the serious contemplation of the sovereign, and that indi- 
viduals were then actually employed at the Courts of the 
Protestant princes of Germany to point out an individual 
worthy to receive the hand of the heir apparent to the crown 
of England. 

The manner in which these offers to Mrs. Fitzherbert 
were received by the Prince may be gathered from the 
following discourse : 

In regard to the following scene, the authenticity of it 
may perhaps be questioned by those who are ignorant of 
the manner in which the secret transactions of a royal pal- 
ace, notwithstanding the vigilance that is used to prevent 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 167 

it, sometimes obtain publicity.* That it will be perused with 
intense interest cannot for a moment be doubted $ nor will 
the impression that it will leave on every mind, in regard to 
the honor and veracity of certain individuals who are impli- 
cated in the business, be easily effaced. 

The Prince was one morning seated in his cabinet, when 
Mrs. Fitzherbert was announced. She entered, holding in 
her hand a newspaper, which proved to be the Morning Post 
of December 15, 1788. 

The Prince rose, advanced to meet her, and offered her 
his hand to conduct her to a seat, but she rejected it with 
disdain, and, throwing herself on the sofa, burst into a flood 
of tears. Nothing could exceed the astonishment of His 
Royal Highness. He intreated her, in the most tender and 
engaging accents, to disclose the cause of her uneasiness 
that he might at least be allowed to share her distress if it 
were beyond his power to remove it. Though relieved by 
tears, the conflict was too severe to be sustained by her 
tender frame ; the contending passions triumphed, and she 

* Huish says : During the time that the Memoirs of the Princess Char- 
lotte, and the Life of George III, were passing through the press, I had sev- 
eral interviews with Sir Benjamin, now Lord Bloomfield, and the present 
Sir Frederick Watson, at Carlton House; and on niy mentioning certain 
circumstances that had come to my knowledge respecting the former illus- 
trious individual, Lord Bloomfield significantly asked me by what m«ans I 
had arrived at the knowledge of those facts ; and, after expressing his sur- 
prise at the extraordinary manner in which the subjects of his private con- 
ferences with the Prince Regent had sometimes transpired, his Lordship 
informed me that he was one day closeted with His Royal Highness 
on business of great private importance, and that he was certain there was 
no one who could possibly overhear their conversation, as there were two 
rooms with double closed doors intervening between that in which they were 
sitting and that in which the pages and other officers were in close attend- 
ance, "and yet," said he, "to my utter astonishment, the subject of our con- 
ference was publicly known two days afterwards." He finished by saying, 
"that he never did believe in invisible agency, but if anything could prompt 
him to believe in it, it was that circumstance." 



168 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

sank into the Prince's arms. Eestoratives were immedi- 
ately called for by the Prince, which were brought by one 
of the pages,* who was commanded immediately to retire. 

On recovery, Mrs. Fitzherbert appeared languid and 
unable to speak, and for what length of time she might have 
remained in that condition it were impossible to say, had 
not the Prince pressed her lips with fervor and effect. It 
was not the cold embrace of compliment — the kiss of wed- 
ded indifference — but the seal of attachment, the impression 
of a youth who had kept a Lent of love. 

" And now, my dearest Fitzherbert," said the Prince, 
u whence arose this mighty commotion ? my heart informs 
me that I merit not cold reserve. If love and constancy be 
virtues of estimation, I am entitled to a candid avowal, for, 
indeed, I love you with increasing ardor, and the power 
which terminates my attachment will stop my breath." 

The Prince enfolded her in his arms and harmony was 
restored. Mrs. Fitzherbert placed in his hands the news- 
paper, andj smiling, asked him whether the provocation 
was not sufficient. The Prince took the paper and read 
aloud : 

" A very extraordinary circumstance has recently occur- 
red, which will probably be the means of delaying, for some 
time, the final and complete arrangement of the intended 
blue and buff Administration (the colors of Mr. Fox). This 
impediment originates with Mr. Fox $ and, were there not 
more of popular artifice than principle in it, it would be 
more honorable to his character than perhaps any part of 
his conduct that had before attracted public notice. 

" The memorable declaration of Mr. Fox, in the House of 

* We do not exactly point to this page as having been the instrument of 
this important conversation being made public, although it has been published 
that he concealed himself behind a screen for the purpose of overhearing it- 
A celebrated bookseller, living in St. James' street, could have thrown som© 
light upon this business. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KENG. 169 

Commons, on the subject of a marriage between a certain 
great character and a lady well known in the higher cir- 
cles, cannot but be fresh in the memory of almost every 
individual in the kingdom. 

"That connection, on account of the difference in relig- 
ious principles, appears to Mr. Fox fraught with probable 
mischief to his measures ; he has, therefore, declared his 
positive resolution not to take any part in the intended 
new ministry until the exact limits of that connection are 
satisfactorily denned, as he has now reason to believe that 
it is of a more coercive and permanent nature than he was 
once induced to imagine and announce. 

" To annul the grounds of Mr. Fox's objection, no less a 
sum than the annual allowance of £20,000 has been offered 
to the lady on condition of her retiring to the continent. 
This the lady has positively refused, expressing her firm 
determination to abide by an authority that she is said to 
hold forth as unanswerable and inalienable. 

"A character,* who has lately started forth into oratori- 
cal consequence, is the negotiator in this important busi- 
ness, who, finding the lady obstinate, has offered, in addi- 
tion to the enormous income above mentioned, the rank of 
an English duchess ! 

"The lady, however, firmly resists all these alluring 
temptations, urging that she was in circumstances entirely 
independent previously to her being induced to coincide 
with that condition from which she is resolute not to recede 
as character is of much greater importance to her than 
affluence, however abundant, if attended with the depriva- 
tion of that rank to which slie holds herself entitled. 71 

The Prince, having finished the perusal of the passage, 
threw down the paper with indignation, exclaiming, " And 
do you suppose that I am within the possibility of counte- 

* We suppose that Mr. Rolle is here alluded to, who was afterwards ele- 
vated to a peerage in consequence of his conduct in this important affair. 

8 



170 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

nancing an action so infamous in its principle, and disgrace- 
ful in its consequences 1 Do you believe me to be so super- 
latively wicked as to drive that woman, to whom I have 
been so solemnly pledged at the altar, to a miserable exile ; 
— so barbarous, so abandoned, as to sacrifice her to the 
wretched pageantry of a Court ? What have you ever wit- 
nessed in my conduct to justify the bare suggestion ? I 
hope my heart is animated by nobler views — by more 
exalted sentiments 5 it is J, madam, who have reason to 
complain !" 

His Royal Highness pronounced the last period with an 
emphasis that alarmed Mrs. Fitzherbert, and she instantly 
replied: "Forgive the weakness of my sex 5 I dreaded 
lest approaching greatness should make my George un- 
mindful of his vows — I did not attribute the brutal outrage 
to your direction. There is no suffering that I would not 
encounter with fortitude to serve you, and of that, I think, 
I have given sufficient proof already." 

The Prince, in a tone of dignity and tenderness, requested 
to be informed to what instance of experienced suffering 
she alluded. 

" To my silent acquiescence in Mr. Foots denial of our 
union." 

u My dear Fitzherbert," said the Prince, seizing her hand, 
" must I reiterate my solemn asseveration 1 Am I un- 
worthy of credit ? Once more, then, I protest, by all that is 
dear and sacred, that Fox's denial of our union was without 
my concurrence — without even my knowledge." (A down- 
right lie.) 

" And did Sheridan and Burke act without your autho- 
rity?" 

" On my honor they did," answered the Prince 5 "do you 
conceive that I would sacrifice a defenceless female, and 
that female the partner of my bed and the sovereign of my 
affections, for money ?■ Perdition seize the idea ! I informed 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 171 

you long ago of the true motives of Fox's conduct. I stood 

engaged for numerous sums ; £10,000 to , £36,000 to 

, £9,000 to , beside £70,000 on bond, and innumer- 
able lesser sums, with weighty arrears to my tradesmen 
and household. Now, Fox was apprised of the scrupulous 
economy of the county members ; he was also alarmed at 
an opinion in circulation that the Protestant cause was in 
danger from my marriage with a Papist j and, for sundry 
other reasons, which he stated in his apology at Carlton 
House, he deemed it conclusive to my interest to declare 
that the report of our marriage originated in treason and 
falsehood." 

" And the denial of that marriage," said Mrs. Fitzherbert, 
" indisputably originated in the personal interests of Fox 
and his associates?' I am confounded at his assurance. 
May Heaven, in its mercy, protect the kingdom from his 
intrigues. Illustrious depravity ! It is impossible to pay a 
tribute to his abilities without doing violence to his honor. 
Every compliment to his head is a tacit accumulation of 
infamy on his heart. 77 

"Give- me leave," said the Prince, "to extenuate the 
criminality of my denial as far as it respects any intention 
of ultimate injustice to you. Fox knew that the union had 
been properly solemnized. He was present, and so was 
Burke. He knew, also, that? it was my determination, on 
acceding to the throne, to repeat the ceremony necessary to 
your coronation 5 hence he fancied it would be better on the 
whole to take refuge in the expedient which has so justly 
offended you, for admitting in candor that he was influenced 
by the best intentions in the world ; he ought certauily to 
have consulted me on the occasion, and I trust you will do 
me the justice to believe that I should not have forgotten 
your happiness and my own honor if I had been doomed, in 
consequence, to the income of a private gentleman for 
life." 



172 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING-. 

" I have never ," said Mrs. Fitzherbert, " given attention 
to a single thought unfavorable to your disinterested mag- 
nanimity ; but, I confess, I have my fears of becoming an 
object of popular abhorrence on the ground of religion." 

" It is impossible, my dear Fitzherbert," said the Prince, 
" to control the multitude by argument — I mean in matters 
of devotion ; but it will be laughable enough if either you 
or I incur censure for a predilection to any particular system 
of faith. We might reasonably have expected long ago to 
be traduced for impiety, for I believe, Fitzherbert, you have 
not been at mass since our union." 

<\Nb," replied Mrs. Fitzherbert, "nor do I purpose to 
attend the celebration any more. The Catholic faith was 
the religion of my ancestors, and of those men to whom I 
gave my hand ; and I conceive it to be cruel in the extreme 
to reproach me for conforming to practices in which I was 
educated, and which coincided with the devotional senti- 
ments of my dearest friendships. I am now in a new 
relation of life, and disposed to consult the honor and hap- 
piness of my present connections ; and, on this occasion, I 
conceive that my duty and my interest flow in the same 
channel. Not that religion is a matter of indifference — far 
from it. It is the heart which constitutes the essence of 
true religion; without it ceremonies are absurd, and with it 
they are unnecessary ; at least they form so unimportant a 
part of public and private devotion, that I can conscien- 
tiously conform, and I will conform, to the established modes 
of the realm. Besides, I have no present objection to share 
my George's fate in future life ; the idea of a separation, 
even there, is painful." 

The Prince smiled, and returned the compliment with a 
kiss $ and then said, " I entreat you, my love, make yourself 
perfectly easy as to anything else. I am at liberty to 
marry whom I please, when regent or sovereign 5 and, if I 
offer my hand to any other woman on earth, may the 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 173 

resentment of mankind record my infamy, and make it 
immortal ! " 

A very erroneous idea has gone abroad respecting the 
privity of Mr. Fox to the marriage of the Prince, and it has 
been stated by a contemporary that Mr. Fox was actually 
duped into a denial of the marriage by a letter from the 
Prince himself, and that Mr. Fox never forgave the false- 
hood which had been practised on him j and, further, that 
the Prince never could prevail upon himself to forgive Mr. 
Fox for having so much to pardon. Now, the real state of 
the case is that the only and greatest dupe in the whole 
affair was John Bull himself. In every word that Fox ut- 
tered, tending to deny the marriage, he was making a dupe 
of the English nation. And, although he was bold enough 
to declare that he had a letter from the Prince himself dis- 
avowing the marriage, no one ever saw nor read it but Fox 
himself. The fact was that no such letter was ever written. 
And when Fox was pressed by the opposite party to pro- 
duce so jmportant a document, he sheltered himself behind 
the plea of breach of confidence — that it would be a stain 
upon his honor to deliver it up, and that it was an insult 
tacitly offered to him even to suspect him of so reprehensi- 
ble an act. The supposed existence, however, of such a 
letter tended, in a great degree, to allay the ferment, and 
to confirm the belief that the marriage of the parties was a 
story vamped up for some political purpose, and had been 
circulated by the enemies of the Prince to injure him in the 
estimation of the country. 

It is, however, certain that the conduct of Fox was 
regarded by Mrs. Fitzherbert with the highest marks of her 
displeasure. And it may also be stated that it operated in 
some degree to establish a coolness between bim and her- 
self on the grounds of some lurking suspicion that the dis- 
avowal of the marriage by Fox was sanctioned by the 



174 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

Prince, and therefore she conld not look npon herself in 
any other light than as a victim to the views of an inter- 
ested and deeply designing party. 

Mrs. Fitzherbert was at this time living in a mansion in 
Park Lane, which was furnished by the Prince in a style 
exceeding oriental magnificence. The Prince's presents to 
her of jewellery, of which we shall have to speak hereafter, 
were said even to exceed the stores of diamonds possessed 
by Caroline herself, avowedly the greatest collection of 
diamonds in Europe, and to whom the King had given, on 
one occasion alone, a case of those precious stones which 
cost £50,000. The Queen, however, had received sets of 
diamonds as presents from Warren Hastings, from the 
Nabob of Arcot, and from the Mzam, and it is certain that 
Mrs. Fitzherbert's diamonds could not have equalled these. 
It is, however, unquestionably true that these extravagant 
presents to Mrs. Fitzherbert, and to some other ladies for 
whose favor the Prince was a candidate, tended to involve 
him in those pecuniary embarrassments which ultimately 
brought npon him disgrace and ruin. 

The extreme partiality which the Queen always mani- 
fested for the Prince, in preference to any other of her 
children, was a subject of general notoriety. It was not 
the profligate course of life which he pursued — it was not 
his wanderings into every path which could lead to scenes 
of dissipation and libertinism — it was not his open and 
avowed opposition to the counsels of his royal father, 
which could effect any diminution in her affection for him 5 
but what the combined force of all these circumstances 
could not achieve was nearly brought to pass by a sup- 
posed insult offered to her dignity by the public appear- 
ance of Mrs. Fitzherbert in those quarters where royalty 
sometimes condescended to appear. The countenance 
which was openly given to that celebrated lady by families 
of the highest distinction, and who were the regular at- 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 175 

tendants at Court, had been long a subject of secret annoy- 
ance to some of the female branches of the royal family, 
but more particularly so to the Queen herself, who saw, or 
thought she saw, in the open and public acknowledgment 
of Mrs. Fitzherbert, the groundwork of the contamination 
of her Court, by her being obliged to receive at it those 
individuals who were known to be the constant associates 
of the mistress of the Prince, and of some other ladies 
whose virtue stood on very questionable grounds. To shut 
the doors of the drawing rooms against such females as the 
Duchesses of Devonshire and Gordon would have been an 
act which could not have failed to have involved her in the 
most serious differences with those noble families ; and yet, 
according to the principle of noscitur a sociis, those ladies 
were the constant companions of Mrs. Fitzherbert, and to 
whom she appeared almost as a divinity, at whose shrine 
they bent their knee, as the chosen object of their adora- 
tion. On viewing the matter, therefore, in this light, nei- 
ther the Duchess of Gordon nor of Devonshire, nor any 
other of those noble ladies who were the associates of Mrs. 
Fitzherbert, were proper persons to be received at the pure 
and immaculate Court of St. James'. 

To enter into a full detail of the various intrigues, which 
were now set on foot to break off all connection between 
the Prince and Mrs. Fitzherbert, would be to exhibit a sys- 
tem of the most unwearied machination unparalleled in 
the j)rivate history of the individuals. Offers of the most 
princely kind were made to her to leave the country, but, 
finding all these rejected, recourse was had to threats, 
which involved her personal existence. She was menaced 
with the whole power of the Government to prove her 
guilty of high treason $ she was threatened with prosecu- 
tions on account of her pecuniary difficulties, and these 
threats were actually put in force, the effects of which, 
however, ultimately recoiled on the promoters of them 5 for 



176 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

to whom else could Mrs. Fitzherbert apply in her pecuniary 
difficulties than to the Prince ? And whatever the sacrifice 
might be which he was called upon to make on these occa- 
sions, the money was always procured, and thereby helped 
to swell the amount of his debts, which the nation was 
called upon in a short time afterwards to pay. Connected 
with these heavy drains on his finances, we are enabled to 
state the following fact, on the authority of the individual 
who was the principal agent in the business : 

The person of Mrs. Fitzherbert was one morning taken in 
execution for a debt of £1,825, the Prince being in the house 
at the time. The writ being returnable on the morrow, and 
no bail being available, the money must be paid, or the 
lady convej^ed to prison. The Prince lost not a moment in 
making the application to his customary resources, but they 
appeared to be, most unaccountably, hermetically closed 
against him. In some instances the most shallow excuses 
were returned ; in others, the impossibility of supplying so 
large a sum on so short a notice, all of which the Prince 
knew to be false, and, therefore, he began justly to suspect 
that there was some secret machinery at work fco prevent 
the necessary supplies from being advanced. In this emer- 
gency Mr. Celi was despatched to an eminent pawnbroker 
in Fleet street,* who at that time was in the habit of lend- 

* We are indebted to the same authority for the following humorous anec- 
dote of this pawnbroker, in some of his pecuniary transactions with Sheridan. 
That celebrated man had, at one time, disposed of all his personal property, 
with the exception of a horse, which had been presented to him by the Prince 
of Wales, and in the exigency of the moment he applied to the pawnbroker 
to advance him £50 on the horse, he agreeing to pay for the keep until the 
animal was redeemed. It was a species of pledge that had never been 
offered to the pawnbroker before, and he at first refused to receive it; but, on 
Sheridan undertaking to redeem it within a month, the £50 was advanced. 
Month after month, however, elapsed, and the horse was not redeemed, the 
pawnbroker receiving, as usual, from Sheridan his promises that in a few 
days the horse should be taben off his hands. Sheridan, however, had made 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 177 

ing large sums of money to the nobility on their plate and 
jewels, and who was the actual holder of the celebrated 
jewels of the Duchess of Devonshire, the publicity of which 
hurried her prematurely to her grave. On the present 
occasion Mr. Parker, the pawnbroker, lost no time in repair- 
ing to Park Lane, where the unfortunate lady was in the 
custody of the sheriff's officers, and here a new difficulty 
presented herself in the way of her emancipation. The 
harpies of the law objected to any part of the plate or jewels 
being deposited in the hands of Mr. Parker until their 
demand was satisfied. On the other hand, the wily pawn- 
broker refused to advance the money until the property 
was placed in his hands, as he did not know but there 
might be other actions in reserve, for the liquidation of 
which the property in the house might turn out to be 
inadequate. Under these circumstances a person was 
secretly despatched to Carlton House, with instructions to 
bring away with him a particular casket, which contained 
the Prince's state jewels, which, although exceeding in 
value ten times the amount of the sum which he had to 
pay, was borne away by the pawnbroker to his depository 
in Fleet street, but which, however, was redeemed on the 
following day by an advance which the Prince obtained 
from the wealthy Jew in St. Mary Axe. 

no stipulation that the pawnbroker should make any use of his horse, but lie 
was frequently seen riding it about town, and especially to and from his 
country house at Chapham. This intelligence was conveyed to Sheridan, and 
oa the following week, when he went to redeem his horse, the charges for 
principal, keep, interest, etc., am<5unted to £80. "Aye, but," said Sheridan, 
" I have got a set-off against you ; you were to keep my horse, not ride it ; but 
I'll let you off cheaply, there is your £50, the sum advanced, and I will only 
charge you £30 for your pleasant rides, and now we are quits, Parker." The 
pawnbroker looked confounded ; he knew the law was on the side of Sheri- 
dan, and, seeing himself completely outwitted, he quietly gave up possession 
of the animal, determining never to take any horse again as a pledge — at 
least, not from Sheridan. 
8* 



178 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 

To return to the original subject. The object which 
chiefly engrossed the attention of the public at this time 
was the trial of Warren Hastings, and on one occasion the 
Queen, with the Princess Elizabeth, Augusta, and Mary, 
made their appearance in the Duke of Newcastle's box. 
The Queen was attended by the Duchess of Ancaster, Lady 
Holdernesse, and Lord Aylesbury ; and, as she came with- 
out state, the usual etiquette was dispensed with, allowing 
those ladies, and the young daughters of Lady Lincoln, to 
sit on the same seat with her. The royal box in Westmin- 
ster Hall was on the right hand of the Chancellor 5 on the 
left was the box for the Princes, and the one contiguous to 
it was appropriated to the nobility. On the entrance of the 
Queen into the royal box, that which was set apart for the 
nobility was nearly empty ; but on a sudden a personage 
appeared in it, towards whom every eye was soon directed, 
and this personage was no other than Mrs. Fitzherbert. 
The look of indignation which the Queen cast upon her is 
represented to have been as deep and severe as it was pos- 
sible for the human countenance to assume, and, after 
addressing a few words to Lady Holdernesse, she rose with 
all the pride of offended majesty, and retired from the box. 
This extraordinary conduct on the part of the Queen excited 
the utmost astonishment, for the proceedings of the day had 
not yet commenced, and, therefore, some very powerfnl 
cause must have operated upon her to induce her to take so 
sudden a departure from a scene which she was come 
expressly to witness, without even waiting for the com- 
mencement of it. The most contradictory rumors were 
immediately afloat, but, strange to say, not one of them 
ever approached the truth 5 and the prevalent one was that 
the King had been suddenly taken ill, and required the 
attendance of the Queen. In a short time, however, the 
Prince entered the box appropriated for the princes of the 
blood, and immediately entered into conversation with Mrs. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 179 

Fitzherbert. By the apparently forcible manner in which 
that lady expressed herself, it was evident that something 
had incurred her high displeasure ; and her frequent allu- 
sion by signs to the royal box betrayed that the cause of 
her displeasure arose from that quarter. The Prince in a 
short time retired, but Mrs. Fitzherbert remained until the 
close of the ceremony. 

The Prince immediately returned to Carlton House, 
where he had scarcely arrived before the following note was 
delivered to him. It was dated Buckingham House, Feb- 
ruary 13, 1790 : 

" The Queen takes the earliest opportunity of expressing to the Prince of 
Wales her high sense of displeasure at the very marked affront which has 
been offered to her by the very unseasonable intrusion of a certain lady at 
the trial of Warren Hastings. It is the opinion of the Queen that that lady 
should have been prevented from exhibiting herself in the royal presence, 
under the peculiar circumstances in which she is placed in regard to His 
Koyal Highness. The sentiments which the Queen is so well known to 
entertain on that subject should have had their proper influence on the mind 
of the Prince of Wales, not still further to wound the feelings of his royal 
mother by exposing her to the personal society of an individual for whom 
she cannot-entertain the slightest respect or esteem. 

"The very ambiguous and mysterious relation in which the Prince of 
Wales stands in regard to the lady in question will always have its becom- 
ing weight in the mind of the Queen, to prevent her acknowledging her, ar 
any of her associates, at the Court over which she presides." 

The Prince no sooner read this extraordinary epistle than, 
in a sudden ebullition of passion, he tore it into pieces and 
threw them on the ground. He then immediately despatched 
a messenger for Sheridan, who was found at Brookes' slowly 
recovering from the debauchery q£ the preceding night, and 
in no very fit state to appear before his royal patron. He, 
however, immediately obeyed the summons, and, on his en- 
tering the private apartment of the Prince, he found him 
pacing the room to and fro in the highest state of exas- 
peration. The Prince had succeeded in collecting the 



180 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

fragments of the letter, and it lay in a legible form on the 
table. "There, Sheridan," said the Prince, as the former 
entered the room, "read that letter, and tell me what 
answer I am to send." 

Sheridan pernsed the letter. "There's the devil's cloven 
foot in this," said he, "but we'll pose Her Majesty. She 
speaks of a certain lady, but whom are we to understand 
that she means by such an ambiguous phrase ? It may be 
Moll Flanders or Bet Bounce. Call upon Her Majesty first 
to explain herself as to the identical lady whom she means, 
and, I think, it may be the means of stifling the business 
altogether, for Her Majesty will pause before she commits 
the name to writing. Besides, it would be a very impolitic 
act in your. Eoyal Highness to pretend to know to whom 
Her Majesty alludes, as it would be a tacit acknowledgment 
that you do actually stand in a particular relation with the 
lady in question." 

The Prince saw something very plausible and dexterous 
in this advice of Sheridan, and the latter indited the follow- 
ing answer, which was transmitted forthwith to Bucking- 
ham House : 

" The Prince of Wales loses not a moment in acknowledging the receipt of 
a letter from the Queen, in which she expresses herself in very strong terms 
on a supposed affront offered to Her Majesty by the appearance of a certain 
lady at the trial of Warren Hastings. As the Prince is not acquainted with 
any lady over whom he possesses such an undisputed right of control as to 
fix a personal restraint upon her actions, much less to be made accountable 
for them, His Royal Highness respectfully submits to the Queen the neces- 
sity of Her Majesty being more explicit in regard to the individual who has 
given the offence, in order that the Prince may have some decided grounds 
to determine how far he ought to be called upon to enter into any further 
explanation on the subject of Her Majesty's letter. 

"Carlton House, Feb. 13, 1791." 

In the course of the evening of the same day the follow- 
ing note was left at Carlton House: 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 181 

" I am commanded by Her Majesty the Queen to acknowledge the receipt 
of a note from His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, in answer to a note 
written by Her Majesty, complaining of the insult which was this morning 
offered to her in Westminster Hall. As the answer of His Royal 
Highness is considered by the Queen as whoUy evasive, Her Majesty, con- 
sistently with her dignity, is under the painful necessity of declining to see 
the Prince of "Wales until an assurance has been given that the insult shall 
not be repeated. 

" (Signed) Aylesbury. 

" To His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, etc., 
" Carlton House." 

This note was conveyed to the Prince at Brookes'. 

The following may be considered as the root of the quar- 
rel which subsequently occurred between the Prince and 
Mrs. Fitzherbert : 

Amongst the most intimate friends of Mrs. Fitzherbert 
was the truly amiable and virtuous Miss Paget j the most 
interesting and sympathetic connection had long subsisted 
between them — the foul breath of calumny had never 
tainted her character — her virtue could only be equalled by 
her beauty, and her talents and perfections were the theme 
of universal panegyric. Bruyere, in his immortal work, 
where he paints the manners and characters of the age in 
which he lived, acknowledges the power of the female sex 
over the heart of man. Our habits and manners are 
greatly influenced by our connection with them, and they 
assume a higher degree of polish in proportion as the 
sphere of our intercourse with them is enlarged. It is, how- 
ever, not only within the circle of a Court that this influence 
is predominant, it pervades all the different gradations of 
society. Its empire is universally triumphant, and perhaps 
in the annals of human history there never was a more 
'abject slave to it than the Prince. The languishing look of 
a woman's eye, dissolving in love and desire, was to him 
what the moonbeam is to the mariner on a stormy night $ it 
was a picture, he was wont to say, that he could gaze on with 



182 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 

delight for ever; and although, in some respects, he could 
not but consider woman as nature's most beautiful error, 
yet ifc was his pride to confess that he loved that error more 
than truth itself. 

It is a dangerous thing for a woman, let her stand either 
in the relation of a wife or a concubine, to have a beautiful 
girl as her companion. The eye of the husband or the 
friend will, at times, wanton over that beauty; the lynx- 
eyed keenness of a woman's passion will soon detect the 
roving glance, and jealousy, with its attendant brood of 
evils, springs up to annihilate every vestige of earthly hap- 
piness. 

That the beauty of Miss Paget should fail to make an 
impression on the Prince could never be expected by any 
one in the least conversant with the susceptibility of the 
heart of the Prince ; but, in his endeavors to obtain a con- 
quest over her virtue, his failure was complete. Neverthe- 
less, it was evident to Mrs. Fitzherbert that some negotia- 
tions were pending between Miss Paget and the Prince ; 
and, as she could not discover their exact tendency, their 
probability was taken into the account, and, consistently 
with the opinion which is generally formed on such occa- 
sions, they could only refer to one point, and that point 
was one of all others most likely to excite her indignation. 

" Trifles light as air 



Are to the jealous confirmations strong 
As proofs of Holy Writ ;", 

and it must be allowed that the following discovery was 
sufficient to arouse the jealousy even of the most placid 
female. 

It was well known to Mrs. Fitzherbert that an epistolary 
correspondence had been for a short time carried on 
between Miss Paget and the Prince ; but of the import of 
it Mrs. Fitzherbert was wholly ignorant. Nevertheless, it 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. £83 

was the cause of great uneasiness to her, for to what other 
subject could it refer than to the expression of a mutual 
attachment ; indeed, not the most distant idea entered the 
head of Mrs. Fitzherbert that it could have the least refer- 
ence to a transaction of a private and confidential nature, 
in which Miss Paget was acting a part in perfect accord- 
ance with the well known generosity of her disposition. 
Jealousy is generally allied with meanness; for there is 
scarcely any action so low or so base to which that passion 
will not stoop to obtain its end. To arrive at the precise 
knowledge of the subject of the correspondence of Miss 
Paget and the Prince, one method presented itself by 
which it might be accomplished, and that was the inter- 
ception of one of the letters from either of the parties. In 
a very short time the following letter from Miss Paget fell 
into the hands of Mrs. Fitzherbert : 

" Park Street, Sept, 11, 1192. 

" Miss Paget regrets that it is not in her power to comply with the wishes 
of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales to their full extent ; but in a 
matter of sojnuch delicacy, and in which the character of His Royal High- 
ness is at stake, there is not anything which Miss Paget would not under- 
take to accomplish the purpose which he has in view, and thereby contrib- 
ute to his personal happiness. As secrecy in matters of this kind is of the 
greatest moment, if His Royal Highness will confer the honor on Miss Paget 
of meeting her at the faro table of the Duchess of Cumberland, on Tuesday 
night, the business may be arranged, perhaps, to the entire satisfaction of 
His Royal Highness. 

" To His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, 
Carlton House." 

The jaundiced eye invests every object with one color j 
and the construction which Mrs. Fitzherbert put upon this 
letter was, perhaps, only such as every other jealous 
woman would have put. In the compliance of Miss 
Paget to " the wishes of His Royal Highness ," Mrs. Fitzher- 
bert read nothing less than the surrender of her person; 



184 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

and the secrecy which was enjoined confirmed her in that 
opinion. The assignation at the faro table of the Duchess 
of Cumberland was the climax; it was the copestone of 
the intrigue 5 and with the art and cunning natural to 
woman in cases of this kind, Mrs. Fitzherbert placed so 
much violence upon her feelings as not to exhibit any signs 
of her displeasure, nor to betray, by any innuendo or remark, 
that she was in any degree privy to the intrigue which was 
going on between her dear friend Paget and her still 
dearer friend the Prince ; but, in order to entrap them in 
their iniquity, she determined to repair to the faro table of 
the duchess on the night appointed in the letter; and she 
then doubted not that she should arrive at the full knowl- 
edge of the design which they had in view. 

The mansion of the Duchess of Cumberland in Pall Mall 
was at this time the resort of all the elegance and fashion 
in town. Her faro table was most numerously attended ; 
consequently, the profits arising from it were very consid- 
erable. The Duchess, with the assistance of her lovely 
and amiabte sister, Lady Emily Luttrell, conducted it with 
all imaginable decorum, never losing sight, however, of the 
main chance ; and a noble harvest they made of the opu- 
lent pigeons that frequented it. Mrs. Fitzherbert and the 
Duchess were at this time almost inseparable ; and to sup- 
pose that the former — thus honored, thus beloved — was 
living in a state of fornication would have been a most 
atrocious libel, not only on herself but on all the most ami- 
able and august personages who frequented the same 
society. 

The expected evening came, and Mrs. Fitzherbert and 
Miss Paget drove to the house of the Duchess of Cumber- 
land. The company was uncommonly numerous; pleasure 
and gaiety seemed to sit on every countenance, though, 
now and then, the sullen frown and the deep gloom of the 
luckless gambler intruded themselves as a striking con' 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 185 

trast to the open, merry countenances of the youthful visit- 
ors who had not yet bent their knee at the shrine of the 
Paphian godess. It was nearly ten o'clock before the Prince 
arrived— the magnet of attraction — the Adonis of the scene. 
His conduct towards Mrs. Fitzherbert in public was always 
distinguished by the most respectful attention, approaching 
very nearly to the most studied formality. To view them 
in company the casual observer would have considered 
them as individuals remotely acquainted, and between 
whom no intimate connection could ever have possibly 
existed. A formal acknowledgment was sometimes all that 
passed between them, and each of them frequently took 
their departure without bestowing on one another the 
slightest mark of their respect. 

This formality, apparently agreed upon between them, 
enabled the Prince to be more profuse in his attentions in 
other quarters ; nor did the prima donna of his affections 
appear to resent the profuse manner in which he lavished 
his incense at the shrine of some glowing beauty, and where 
she well knew the conquest of her virtue was the sole aim 
of his adoration. 

On this evening, however, a positive assignation had been 
made, and there is scarcely anything in which a woman 
triumphs with more malicious joy than in the detection of a 
rival, and especially if that rival should be in any degree 
within the influence of her power. 

The house of the Duchess of Cumberland, although not so 
extensive nor magnificent as some others of the noble faro 
table keepers, yet it was universally acknowledged that it 
was not surpassed by any in convenience. Where all under- 
stood the specific purpose of each apartment, interruption 
was never feared, and the prima donna with trembling 
anxiety looked forward to the moment when her bosom 
friend, whose virtue had hitherto stood as firm as the rock 
in the ocean, though assailed by the most tempestuous bil- 



186 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

lows, was to be led away u to satisfy the wishes of Sis Royal 
Highness , although not to their full extent." Every motion of 
the falling culprit was watched with the same keenness with 
which the basilisk watches its prey. At last the Prince 
was observed to accompany Miss Paget from the principal 
rooin, and so thoroughly was the conviction now impressed 
upon the mind of the infuriated lady that she had detected 
the virtuous Paget, her dearest and most confidential 
friend, in an amorous intrigue with her own property, that 
she immediately ordered her carriage and drove home, 
leaving the supposed culprit to find her way after her in 
the best possible manner she could. 

On the following morning Miss Paget was given to 
understand that the intimacy which had hitherto subsisted 
between Mrs. Fitzherbert and herself was at an end, and 
that it would be highly agreeable to the former lady if she 
would select for herself another place of residence. Con- 
founded with this most unexpected dismissal, Miss Paget 
requested a personal interview, as she was not conscious to 
herself that she had in any manner acted injuriously to the 
interests of the offended lady, nor in opposition to the prin- 
ciples of virtue or of rectitude. The interview was refused, 
nor did the offended lady condescend to assign any reason 
for her apparently harsh and unjustifiable conduct. In 
this dilemma Miss Paget applied to the Prince to intercede 
in her behalf, and at least to obtain from Mrs. Fitzherbert 
a distinct avowal of the causes which had conspired to 
estrange them from each other. It is, however, certain that 
Miss Paget could not have selected an individual more 
improper to espouse her cause than the Prince himself ; but 
he immediately undertook the office, and, on his entrance 
into the apartment of Mrs. Fitzherbert, he evidently saw, 
by the sullen frown that sat upon the beautiful countenance 
of the lady, that a storm was raging within, which was soon 
to burst upon him with all the fury of the woman who has 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 187 

detected her lover in an act of infidelity. The Prince heard 
the charge against him with the utmost indignation ; but 
it is reported that the lady so far transgressed the rules of 
decorum and good breeding as to throw a cup of coffee into 
his face, and then, by way of climax, to declare that she 
would accept of the offers which had been made to her, and 
leave the country forever. 

There is a secret pride in conscious innocence which 
enables it to rise superior to every aspersion which can be 
thrown upon it, and to bring discomfiture and disgrace 
on all those who, by the restlessness of some predominant 
passion, have attempted to throw over it the darkest shades 
of guilt and criminality. The Prince, as it may be easily 
imagined, was no stranger to the female character, and he 
well knew that to restrain the volubility of a woman's 
tongue, at a moment when she is smarting with the pangs 
of jealousy, were a task as hopeless of success as to check 
a rocket in its ascending flight. He, therefore, very wisely 
suffered the storm to exhaust itself before he entered upon 
his justification. But when he was shown the copy of the 
intercepted letter as confirmatory proof of his infidelity and 
of his secret amour with Miss Paget, his indignation then 
could be no longer controlled, and he gloried in the oppor- 
tunity which was given him of humbling the infuriated 
dame and of exposing the folly and injustice of her conduct 
in their most glaring colors. 

" It is true," said the Prince, " that Miss Paget declares 
in her note her regret that she cannot satisfy my wishes to 
their full extent. The construction which the jealousy of 
your disposition has put upon that passage may be easily 
imagined, but it is in direct variance with truth. You 
know my embarrassments — you also know that I am in 
danger of having even my horses and carriage taken in ex- 
ecution in the open streets if I do not come to some imme- 
diate settlement of Gray's account. I have completely 



188 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

exhausted my own resources ; the sale of my racing stud 
has produced me comparatively a mere trifle. In fact, 
-when the necessary expenses are defrayed of my establish- 
ment at Newmarket, there will not be the surplus of a 
pound. The connections of Paget I know to be opulent^ 
and I know also that she possesses resources from which 
a temporary assistance can be obtained. In my present 
embarrassment, I applied to her to obtain for me the loan 
of £10,000, and in her answer she tells me that she regrets 
that she cannot satisfy my wishes to the full extent. The 
secrecy she enjoins is no more than that general line of 
prudence which usually distinguishes pecuniary transac. 
tions, and the assignation at the Duchess of Cumberland's 
was nothing more than to inform me of the success of her 
application. On that night she delivered to me £7,000 in 
cash, and a negotiable security for the remaining £3,000. 
And now," concluded the Prince, " I leave you to the en- 
joyment of your feelings at the undeserved obloquy which 
you have thrown on the character of a virtuous and gener- 
ous girl, and I trust this circumstance will operate as a 
caution to you never to throw a stain upon the character of 
an individual before you are fully acquainted with all the 
secret springs of action, and have arrived at a genuine 
and undisguised exposition of the ruling motives." 

There is perhaps nothing more painful to a candid and 
generous mind than to find that, misled by false appear- 
ances, we have been heaping odium and censure on the 
actions of our friend, and then ultimately to discover that 
those very actions were richly deserving of our highest ap- 
probation and gratitude. In this situation Mrs. Fitzher- 
bert found herself in regard to Miss Paget $ she felt that 
she had wronged her — cruelly wronged her — and consist- 
ently with that most singular trait in the human character, 
Mrs. Fitzherbert, as the injurer, could not be easily brought 
to forgive Miss Paget, whereas the forgiveness lay entirely 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 189 

on the part of the latter. By degrees, however, the 
offended pride of the haughty dame was gradually softened 
down, a reconciliation took place, and to the honor of the 
Prince it must be recorded that in a very short time the 
pecuniary obligation was satisfied. And when she after- 
wards became the wife of a general, who signalized himself 
in the Peninsular war, the Prince gave her away at the 
altar and made her a present of a diamond necklace (of the 
value of £2,000, of the people's money). 

The following letter of the Duke of Wellington contains 
his protest to breaking the seals of the packet deposited at 
Coutts' bank, to which reference has been made : 

" Walmer Castle, August 10, 1841. 
"My Lord: 

" When the late Mrs. Fitzherbert desired to receive from those who had 
possession of the papers of the late King George the Fourth, under authority 
of His Majesty's last will, all papers written by herself, or relating to 
herself, I considered that I performed a duty towards his then late Majesty 
G-eorge the Fourth, towards the sovereign on the throne, and the royal 
family, as well as to Mrs. Fitzherbert, and the public at large, by sub- 
mitting to that lady the proposition that all papers in the possession of those 
who had charge of the King's papers under authority of his last will, which 
related to Mrs. Fitzherbert, or were written or signed by herself, on the one 
hand, and all those in possession of Mrs. Fitzherbert which related to the 
late King George the Fourth, or were written or signed by himself, on the 
other, should be delivered up and destroyed in presence of the parties 
having possession of the same ; which was carried into execution accord- 
ingly at Mrs. Fitzherbert's house in Tilney street, in presence of Mrs. Fitz- 
herbert, myself and others, with the exception as follows : 

"Mrs. Fitzherbert expressed a strong desire to retain undestroyed par- 
ticular papers in which she felt a strong interest. I considered it my duty 
to consent to these papers remaining undestroyed, if means could be 
devised of keeping them as secret and confidential papers, as they had been 
up to that moment. 

" Mrs. Fitzherbert expressed an anxiety at least equal to that which I felt 
that those papers, although preserved, should not be made public. 

" It was agreed, therefore, that they should be deposited in a packet, and 
be sealed up under the seals of the Earl of Albemarle, your lordship, and 
myself, and lodged at Messrs. Coutts, the bankers. 



190 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING!-. 

" Circumstances have, in some degree, changed since the death of Mrs. 
Fitzherbert ; but it is still very desirable to avoid drawing public attention 
to, and re-awakening the subject by, public discussion of the narrations to 
which the papers relate, which are deposited in the packet sealed up, to 
which I have above referred. And I am convinced that neither I nor any of 
the survivors of the royal family, of those who lived in the days in which 
these transactions occurred, could view with more pain any publication or 
discussion of them than would the late Mrs. Fitzherbert when alive. 

" Under these circumstances, and having acted conscientiously and upon 
honor throughout the affairs detailed in this letter, I cannot but consider it 
my duty to protest, and I do protest most solemnly, against the measure 
proposed by your lordship, that of breaking the seals affixed to the packet of 
papers belonging to the late Mrs. Fitzherbert, deposited at Messrs. Coutfcs, 
the bankers, under the several seals of the Earl of Albemarle, your lordship, 
and myself. " I have the honor to be, 

_, " My Lord, 

" Your Lordship's most faithful 

" and obedient humble servant, 
"The Lord Stourton, " Wellington." * 

u Allerton Park." 

Before the death of Mrs. Fitzherbert the most audacious 
attempt was made to obtain and destroy these papers in the 
interests of the King, and several frustrated attempts were 
publicly known. The most remarkable was that of Sir 
William "Knighton, as narrated in Greville's Memoirs, who 
forced his way into her bedroom when she was ill in bed, 
and it was this visit that led her to make a final disposition 
of the valuable documents. The united testimonies of the 
Duke of Wellington, the Earl of Albemarle, and Lord 
Stourton establish the existence of the reserved papers at 
Coutts 7 bank. It is not probable that, in this investigating 
age, they can much longer be withheld from an inquisitive 
public. Mrs. Fitzherbert died at Brighton, March 29, 1837, 
and a handsome monument was erected to her memory by 
the Honorable Mrs. Darner. 

* Langdale's Memoir*. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OP A KING. 191 



GtojrtM Jiftit- 



The Prince was subject to impulsive fits of generosity, in 
which his character would seem at variance with the mean 
and despicable acts which are inseparably connected with 
his name. 

He was one day so exceedingly urgent to have £800 in 
an hour on such a day, and in so unusual a manner, that 
the gentleman who furnished the supply had some curiosity 
to know for what purpose it was obtained. On inquiry he 
was informed that the moment the money arrived, the 
Prince drew on a pair of boots, pulled off his coat and waist- 
coat, slipped on a plain morning frock, without a star, and, 
turning his hair to the crown of his head, put on a slouched 
hat, and thus walked out. This intelligence raised still 
greater curiosity, and with some trouble the gentleman dis- 
covered the object of the mysterious visit. An officer of 
the army had just arrived from America with a wife and 
six children, in such low circumstances, that, to satisfy 
some clamorous creditor, he was on the point of selling his 
commission, to the utter ruin of his family. The Prince, by 
accident, overheard an account of the case. To prevent a 
worthy soldier suffering, he procured the money, and, that 
no mistake might happen, carried it himself. On asking at 
an obscure lodging house, in a court near Covent Garden, 
for one of the inmates, he was shown up to his room, and 
there found the family in the utmost distress. Shocked at 
the sight, he not only presented the money, but told the 
officer to apply to Colonel Lake, living in street, and 



192 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A ETNG. 

give some account of himself in future ; saying which he 
departed, without the family knowing to whom they were 
obliged.* 

The pecuniary embarrassments of the Prince now pressed 
heavily upon him. The rebuilding of Carlton House, and 
the sumptuous decoration of the Pavilion, with a crowd of 
gay and profligate associates, could not fail to involve the 
Prince in debts, to the discharge of which his slender in- 
come was far from adequate. It was, to use Shenstone's 
simile, a large retinue upon a small income, which, like a 
cascade upon a small stream, tended to discover its tenuity. 
The Prince's style of living was splendid beyond a prece- 
dent ; his stud was the finest in Europe, but the exact 
reverse of profitable $ and his losses at the gaming table 
were reported to be immense. His debts amounted to 
nearly £300,000, and, as his creditors became very importu- 
nate, he laid his case before the King and solicited relief. A 
schedule of the Prince's debt was, by the King's command, 
soon laid before him $ but whatever might have been the 
nature of that document, some of the items were so incon- 
sistent with the strictly moral principles of George III ? 
that the negotiation ended in his positive refusal to assist 
the Prince, and the heir apparent gained nothing by his 
application but the unequivocal displeasure of the King. 
One of the items of this schedule was a debt due to Mr. 
Jefferys, the jeweller, for jewels and plate furnished to Mrs. 
Fitzherbert, to the amount of £54,000. 

The haughty indifference of the monarch and the minis- 
ter to the pressing claims of the Prince threw him entirely 
on the sympathy of the opposition. Mr. Pitt identified 
himself with the obstinacy of the father, while Mr. Fox 

* This incident may have furnished Sheridan the suggestion to make 
Charles Surface, in his " School for Scandal," send a portion of the money he 
raised, by selling the portraits of his ancestors, to a suppositious object of 
charity, when his anteroom was crowded with clamorous creditors.— 
Editob 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 193 

and the opposition connected themselves with the irregu- 
larities of the son. One evil consequence that was on the 
point of resulting from the embarrassments of the Prince 
was his acceptance of a loan which the Duke of Orleans 
proffered him, and which would have the perilous tendency 
of placing the future sovereign of England in a state of 
dependence as a creditor on a Prince of France. 

The secret of the loan may be estimated by the fact, that 
the Duke agreed with the Prince that he was to receive a 
certain sum on his (the Prince) coming to the throne. 
The nominees of the Duke were two profligate females. 
This transaction, unequalled since the days of Charles II, 
put every party to great difficulties; and the friends of the 
King and the Prince were equally anxious to prevent the 
loan taking place, or being known to the public. The 
Prince was deeply in debt to many English noblemen, but 
they concealed the fact with great delicacy, whilst the 
Duke of Orleans, prompted by the vanity so natural to his 
nation, had industriously circulated the report about the 
English Prince being about to borrow money of him. The 
two women who were to receive the Prince's bond of pay- 
ment at his father's death gloried in circulating amongst 
the ijronigate coteries of the French Court the degrading 
obligations which their paramour had imposed on the Eng- 
lish crown. 

The Duke of Portland, as the friend of the "King, was 
zealous in stopping the transaction. On the 13th of De- 
cember, 1786, he writes to Mr. Sheridan : u I have received 
a confirmation of the intelligence. The particulars varied 
in no respect from those I related to you, except in the 
addition of a pension, which is to take place immediately 
on the event which entitles the creditors to payment, and 
is to be granted for life to a nominee of the Duke of Or- 
leans. The loan was mentioned in a mixed company, by 
two of the Frenchwomen and a Frenchman, in Calonne's 

9 



194 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

presence (then Minister of Finance,) who begged them, for 
God's sake, not to talk of it. I am going to Bulstrode, but 
will return at a moment's notice, if I can be of the least use 
in getting rid of this odious engagement," etc. 

Mr. Pitt was as pertinacious as the King in refusing any 
aid to the Prince, who was driven to more mortifying ex- 
pedients for money than had ever befallen a royal person- 
age. The following account, given in Jefferys' own words r 
will exhibit the degraded state to which he at this time 
was reduced for money : 

" The Prince sent for me to Carlton House, at a much 
earlier hour in the morning than he was accustomed to do, 
and, taking me into an inner apartment, with very visible 
marks of agitation in his countenance and manner, said 
he had a great favor to ask of me, which, if I could accom- 
plish, would be doing him the greatest service, and he 
should ever consider it accordingly. I replied that I 
feared what His Eoyal Highness might consider a great 
favor done towards him would be more than my limited 
means could accomplish ; but that in all I could do I was 
entirely at his service, and requested His Eoyal Highness 
to name his commands. 

"His Eoyal Highness then proceeded to state that a 
creditor of Mrs. Fitzherbert had made a very peremptory 
demand for the payment of about £1,600; that Mr. Welt' 
jee had been sent by His Eoyal Highness to the creditor 
making such demand, to desire it might be placed to the 
Prince's account. This, however, the creditor refused to 
do, on the ground that Mrs. Fitzherbert, being a woman of 
no rank nor consideration in the eye of the law, as to per- 
sonal privilege, was amenable to an immediate process r 
which was not the case with His Eoyal Highness. Tbio 
the Prince stated to have caused in his mind the greatest 
uneasiness, for fear of the consequences that might ensue, 
as it was not in the power of His Eoyal Highness to paj> 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 195 

the money then, or to name an earlier period for so doing 
than three or four months. The request, therefore, which 
His Eoyal Highness had to make to me was, that I would 
interfere on the occasion, and prevent, if possible, any per- 
sonal inconvenience to Mrs. Fitzherbert, which would be 
attended with extreme mortification to His Eoyal High- 
ness. 

u I assured His Eoyal Highness that I would do all I 
could in the business, and I was appointed to attend with 
the result of my endeavors, at Carlton House, the next 
morning. I did attend as appointed, and presented the 
Prince of Wales with a receipt for the whole sum, £1,585 
lis. 7d.j which I had that morning paid, being the only 
effectual means of pacifying the creditor, and removing 
from the mind of His Eoyal Highness the anxiety he ap- 
peared so strongly to labor under. 

" His Eoyal Highness was unbounded in his expressions 
of satisfaction at what I had so promptly accomplished ; 
and in the afternoon on the same day he came to my house 
in Piccadilly, and brought with him Mrs. Fitzherbert, for 
the express purpose, as His Eoyal Highness condescend- 
ingly said, that she might herself thank me for the great 
and essential service I had that morning rendered to her 
by the relief my exertions had produced in the minds of 
His Eoyal Highness and Mrs. Fitzherbert." 

The second instance, as related by Jefferys, does not 
place the character of His Eoyal Highness in the most 
favorable light. 

u Being once alone with His Eoyal Highness, he asked 
me if I had any money to spare for a few days. I replied 
that I had in my pocket £630, but that it was destined for 
a particular purpose, or I should not have had it about 
me ; however, as the request of His Eoyal Highness was 
only for a few days, any part of it was at his service. His 
Royal Highness took £420, and, thanking me in very warm 



196 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

terms, assured me that I might rely on its return in ten 
days. I refused to take any memorandum for the supposed 
short loan of this money ; but for the return, which I ex- 
pected in ten days, I patiently waited considerably more 
than a year." 

Jefferys says that he frequently threw himself in the way 
of the Prince, hoping that his presence would remind him 
of the debt, but no notice was ever taken of it. 

We leave these facts to speak for themselves. It is true 
that an attempt was made to justify the conduct of the 
Prince, and as a sequitur to defame the character of Jefferys, 
by an anonymous pamphleteer, under the signature of 
Philo Yeritas 5 but, like many other zealous advocates, who, 
by attempting to prove too much, prove nothing at all, the 
cause and character of the Prince were rather injured than 
promoted. 

Now, finding that all his usual resources were exhausted, 
and that he was totally unable to meet the heavy and 
incessant demands which were made upon him from the 
establishment in Park Lane, and others of a more private and 
secret nature, he formed a resolution which was more loudly 
applauded and more strongly condemned than any action 
of his eventful life. Surrounded with pecuniary difficulties, 
and exasperated by the King's refusal to relieve them, he 
resolved to pursue a course which would have been wise 
in a private individual, but which in him, who was the 
depositary of the national honor, must be considered, at the 
best, as a very dubious virtue. It was an act similar to that 
of the pettish child who destroys all its playthings because 
it cannot exactly obtain a particular one on which it has 
set its heart. This resolution of the Prince was to live on 
an income of £10,000 a year, appropriating £40,000 annu- 
ally to the liquidation of his debts till all should be dis- 
charged. 

The answer of the King, declining, in the most peremptory 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 197 

manner, to come forward with any relief of the Prince from 
his pecuniary embarrassments, was delivered to the Prince 
on the 4th of May, 1786, through the hands of Lord South- 
hampton, and the comments which a very able eulogist of 
the Prince makes upon this eventful period of his life are 
as follows : 

u The Prince no sooner received the King's answer than, 
with a promptitude that did honor to his spirit as a man, 
he took only one day to deliberate upon the conduct he 
should hold in this emergency. He then resolved, in jus- 
tice to his creditors, to curtail the establishment of his 
household, to abridge himself of every superfluous expense, 
and to set apart a large annual sum, to the amount of 
£40,000, for the liquidation of his debts. Nothing could be 
more generous, noble, and high spirited than the whole of 
this proceeding to honestly pay his debts. 

" But the Prince's notions of equity were far from stop- 
ping here. He had hitherto indulged in a passion frequent 
among persons of high rank — that of training running 
horses for Newmarket, and other places of public conten- 
tion of the same kind ; but in this emergency he scrupled 
not a moment to give up a favorite and an innocent (?) 
relaxation, the more speedily to satisfy the claims of his 
creditors. Accordingly, his racing stud, which had been 
formed with great judgment and expense, and which was 
looked upon as one of the most complete in the kingdom — 
his hunters, and even his coach horses, were sold by public 
auction, and produced the amount of seven thousand 
guineas l" 

It was a base and shallow artifice, on the part of the 
friends of the Prince, to restore him to that popularity 
which events had destroyed, and which, acting upon the 
humane and sympathetic feelings of the English people, 
they considered themselves certain of obtaining. The idea 
of a sale of horses and carriages to the amount of £7,350, to 



198 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

be the means of stifling the claims of creditors of nearly 
£300,000, was too preposterous to be entertained for a 
moment, excepting by those who thought, if they could 
adduce one example of economy, they should obtain credit 
for all the others which were promised, but which were 
never acted upon 5 but, in furtherance of this spirit of 
retrenchment and economy, the eulogist of the Prince tells 
us, " that at the same time the buildings and interior dec- 
orations of Carlton House were stopped (we should wish to 
know when they were ever finished,) and some of the most 
considerable rooms shut up from use. The number of his 
attendants was also diminished ; but, with that thoughtful- 
ness and kind consideration which always distinguish a 
truly generous mind, care was taken to settle pensions on 
those who would otherwise have been reduced to distress 
on quitting the Prince's service. This trait in his character 
it would have been unpardonable not to have noticed, and, 
we add to it, that as he is a kind, provident, and indulgent 
master, so no Prince was ever more cordially and zealously 
beloved by his servants. In the shipwreck (if we may be 
allowed the term) of his fortunes, many of them made him 
a voluntary offer of their services free from every expense, 
and it was not without tears of reluctance, soothed with 
the promise of being taken again into his service whenever 
circumstances would admit of the reestablishment of his 
household, that these humble but faithful servants were 
prevailed on to quit the palace of this much loved Prince." 

a With this magnanimity of feeling did he think proper 
to retire from the splendor which belonged to his high sta- 
tion, rather than forfeit that character of honor and integ- 
rity which undoubtedly every man ought to consider him- 
self in pledging to his creditors, and which, above all others, 
should be sacred in the eyes of a prince." 

u But his conduct on this interesting occasion, far from 
receiving that just tribute of public approbation to which it 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 199 

was so well entitled, from the noble-mindedness of its mo- 
tives, became a subject of various animadversion. In itself, 
undoubtedly, and taken abstractedly from any circumstance 
that had previously agitated the public mind relative to this 
illustrious personage, like that to which we have before 
alluded, it was entitled to the highest commendation." 

The first illness of the King in 1765, and the testimony of 
his medical attendants during its continuance, had prepared 
the nation for a return of the malady, which reappeared in 
1789. No provision, however, had been made for such a 
contingency by the ministry, and the discussions which fol- 
lowed threatened to unsettle the Constitution itself. The 
friends of the Prince in the House of Commons insisted 
upon the right of the Prince to assume the reins of Govern- 
ment, regarding his father as politically dead. It is unne- 
cessary to repeat here with what splendid abilities his 
claims were explained and enforced. Fox, recalled from the 
continent, thundered his eloquent indignation against the 
opposers of the Prince. The versatility of Sheridan and 
the dazzling coruscations of his effulgent wit were taxed to 
the utmost of his commanding reason in his behalf, and 
Burke lavished the rich treasures of his oratory in keen and 
polished ridicule of the opposition. 

Pitt's views of the case were that no inherent right ex- 
isted in the Prince; but, as a matter of expediency, he 
thought the legislatve power might place the executive in 
the hands of the Prince, to be limited to the period of the 
King's recovery. 

The Prince, through the Lord Chancellor, expressed his 
trust to the wisdom and justice of Parliament when the 
subject, and the circumstances connected with it, should 
come under their deliberation. After several ineffectual 
attempts on the part of the friends of the Prince to modify 
the restrictions of the Eegency Bill, and to invest him with 
superior power, the two Houses agreed to resolutions invest- 



200 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

ing him with, the Regency, withholding from him the right 
to grant any rank or dignity of the peerage, or of any office, 
pension, or salary, for any other term than during the King's 
pleasure. The care of the King's person, as in his previous 
illness, was committed to the Queen. 

The oratorical displays of Burke, Fox, and Pitt before 
Parliament during the discussion of the Regency Bill were 
brilliant and exhaustive, and constitute an important page 
in the political history of England, but are too voluminous 
for further reference in our work. 

The recovery of the King was announced to Mr. Pitt in 
the following manner: On the 23d of February, 1789, Mr. 
Pitt and Lord Melville were dining with Lord Chesterfield, 
when a letter was brought to the former, which he read, 
and, sitting next to Lord Melville, gave it him under the 
table, and whispered, that when he had looked at it, it 
would be better for them to talk it over in Lord Chesterfield's 
dressing room. This proved to be a letter in the King's own 
hand, announcing his recovery to Mr. Pitt, in terms some- 
what as follows : 

"The King renews, with great satisfaction, his communi- 
cation with Mr. Pitt, after the long suspension of their 
intercourse, owing to his very tedious and painful illness. 
He is fearful that, during this interval, the public interests 
have suffered great inconvenience and difficulty. 

u It is most desirable that immediate measures should be 
taken for restoring the functions of his Government. Mr. 
Pitt will consult with the Lord Chancellor to-morrow morn- 
ing upon the most expedient means for that purpose. The 
King will receive Mr. Pitt at Kew about one o'clock." 

There could be no hesitation on the part of Mr. Pitt ; and, 
having held the necessary conference with the Chancellor, 
he waited upon the King at the appointed time. He found 
him perfectly of sound mind, and in every respect, as before 
his illness, competent to all the affairs of his public station. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 201 

This was the first notice, in any way, which Mr. Pitt 
received of this most important event ; the reports of the 
physicians had indeed been of late more favorable; bnt 
Lord Melville verily believed there was not a man, except 
I)r. Willis, who entertained the smallest hope of the resto- 
ration of the King's mind. Mr. Pitt continually declared 
this opinion to Lord Melville, and they had both determined 
to return to the bar, as the dissolution of the ministry was 
then on the point of taking place. 

The letter in question Lord Melville took from Mr. Pitt, 
saying he had a trick of losing papers, and furnished him 
only with a copy, the original remaining in his lordship's 
possession. The King wrote the letter at a little table of 
the Queen's which stood in his apartment, without the 
knowledge of any person ; and, having finished, rang his 
bell, and gave it to his valet de chambre, directing it to be 
carried immediately to Mr. Pitt. 

In a conversation which the King afterwards had with 
Justice Hardinge, he greatly commended the conduct of 
the House of Commons in regard to the Regency question, 
and said his illness had in the end been a perfect bliss to 
him, as proving how nobly the people would support him 
when he was in trouble. 

The King's malady had, however, been very distressing; 
for, in a letter addressed from Windsor by Admiral Payne 
to Mr. Sheridan on the Regency negotiation, we find, u the 
King has been worse these last two days than ever ; this 
morning he made an effort to jump out of the window^ and 
he is now very turbulent and incoherent." 

The following anecdotes will show the state of the King's 
mind at this time, and they have been now made public on 
the authority of one of the pages who was then in attend- 
ance on His Majesty : 

" The King was driving the Queen in the Great Park at 
Windsor, when, on a sudden, he exclaimed, u There he is P 



202 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

and, giving the reins to his illustrious consort, descended 
from the phaeton. I was then on duty, and the horse on 
which I was mounted was young and restive ; and, not- 
withstanding my utmost exertions, turned and ran towards 
the carriage. I was covered with confusion, but Her 
Majesty, who saw my distress, most graciously conde- 
scended to relieve me by a well timed remark on the restive- 
ness of my horse. 

" His Majesty now approached a venerable oak that had 
enlivened the solitude of that quarter of the park upwards 
of a century and a half. At the distance of a few yards he 
uncovered, and advanced, bowing with the utmost respect 5 
and then, seizing one of the lower branches, he shook it 
with the most apparent cordiality and regard — just as a 
man shakes his friend by the hand. 

" The Queen turned pale with astonishment — the reins 
dropped from her hands. I felt the most painful appre- 
hension lest the horses in the carriage, finding themselves 
under no control, should run headlong to destruction ; nor 
did I dare to call for assistance, lest the attendants should 
witness a scene that I desired to keep from their view. At 
last, Her Majesty became attentive to her situation ; -and, 
as the reins were happily within reach, they were recov- 
ered, and the Queen commanded me to dismount, and to go 
and intimate, in a soothing voice and suppliant terms, that 
Her Majesty wished for his company. 

" On my approach, I perceived the King was engaged in 
earnest conversation. It was the King of Prussia with 
whom His Majesty enjoyed this rural interview. Conti- 
nental politics were the subject. 

u I approached with reverence — ; May it please your 
Majesty ' 

" * Don't you see I am engaged V said the King. 

" I bowed and withdrew. i His Majesty is engaged, 
and J 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 203 

" * Go again/ said the Queen, interrupting me. I went. 

May I presume to inform your Majesty that ' 

" i What is the matter V said the King, in great surprise. 

" i Her Majesty is in the carriage, and I am commanded 
to intimate her desire of your Majesty's company.' 

" i Good lackaday V said the King, i that is true ; run on 
and inform Her Majesty that I am hastening to her.' 
###### 

"It was Sunday, and His Grace of Canterbury com- 
manded prayers to be read in the royal apartment. 

" ' Dearly beloved brethren ' said the chaplain. 

" < Tally ho ! Tally ho P said the King. 

" c The Scripture moveth us in sundry places ' 

" ' Go forward, Miranda ! go forward ! Tally ho I Ac- 
tion ! Tally ho ! ' 

li i To the end that we may obtain ' 

" i Halloo I Hanger and Swift ; Tally ho I Tally ho I 
' Ware Fox, Miranda ! ' Ware Fox P 

"The chaplain looked at Sir George Baker, and Sir 
George Baker looked at the chaplain ; and then, risum ten- 
eatis amid — they laughed. 

" And the King laughed — and we all laughed — and Sir 
George Baker said that the prayers had done His Majesty 
a vast deal of good — and Dr. Willis said the same — and the 
King dined very comfortably, and was cheerful — and he 
told Dr. Willis and Sir George that he wished to see them 
dance a hornpipe. 

" ' We beg leave to decline the honor of dancing in your 
Majesty's presence.' 

" c Sic volo, sic jubeOj stet pro rations voluntas] said the 
sovereign. i Here is my sceptre,' said he, holding the 
knife in a threatening posture, J and the man who pre- 
sumes to oppose my will shall be instantly — instantly im- 
paled alive.' 

"And the King called for his flute, and Sir George 



204 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

Baker and Dr. Willis danced till it was dark ; and thus 
ended the Sabbath day. 

" It was my fate to be on duty this morning in the King's 
apartments. 

u The attendants had been enjoined to keep the profound- 
est silence. No answer was to be given to any question pro- 
posed by His Majesty. I was unable to see the wisdom of 
this injunction. A discreet answer might have frequently 
soothed the patient, and conciliated attachment. 

" I am confident the prohibition was productive of great 
mischief, and, in evidence of this proposition, I beg leave to 
relate a memorable occurrence. 

" Several symptoms of convalescence had made their 
appearance the preceding day; and with the benevolent 
view of refreshing the domestics, after long and severe 
attendance, they had leave of absence for three or four 
hours. Meanwhile, I was commanded to remain in the 
royal presence, and to act according to exigencies. 

a t ##**y sa j c i £ oe King, calling me by name, l it is a fine 
morning. Has there been a hunt V 

u I bowed. 

a i ###*y sa j£ ^he King again, l has there been a hunt 
this morning V 

" I bowed. 

"His Majesty was obviously displeased; but I did not 
dare to transgress orders. 

" ' Give me the lemonade/ said the King. 

" I gave it, and bowed. 

u i Take the glass, 7 he said. 

" I approached to take it. In a moment he seized me by 
the collar, threw down the glass, and then attacked me 
with so much vigor and alacrity that I was constrained to 
call for assistance. 

"A physician was happily in the antechamber, and heard 



205 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

me. On seeing him enter the room the King desisted, ask- 
ing me, ' Whether I had found my tongue V " 

A national thanksgiving for the recovery of the King 
was solemnized on April 23, at St. Paul's Cathedral, at 
which their Majesties and the royal family attended. At 
the conclusion of the service, the Prince hastened from the 
cathedral to Carlton House, where he changed his dress 
for the uniform of his regiment, and, taking the command 
of it, proceeded to meet the King on his return, thus be- 
coming himself his guard and conductor to the Queen's 
palace. Alighting there, the Prince presented himself at 
the door, in a manner that required to be seen in order to 
be appreciated. "It was to the revered monarch — to the 
beloved parent — that His Eoyal Highness offered assist- 
ance. The tender attachment of the most affectionate of 
sons — the zealous devotion of the first of subjects — were 
manifested with an energy and a grace that no language 
can adequately describe." The event was otherwise com- 
memorated by grand fetes, illuminations, etc., and the 
King's birthday was celebrated with unusual splendor, 
terminating with a ball, at which an incident occurred 
which Was strongly characteristic of the Prince's regard for 
"the small, sweet courtesies of life." 

The King, however, was not present during any part of 
the day, owing to the shock occasioned by the duel so re- 
cently fought between the Duke of York and Colonel Len- 
nox. In the evening a most splendid ball was given, and 
notwithstanding what had so recently happened, and the 
established etiquette that no person should stand up at 
country dances who had not danced a minuet, Colonel 
Lennox appeared in the circle with Lady Catherine Barnard. 
This the Prince did not perceive until he and his partner, 
the Princess Eoyal, came to the Colonel's place in the 
dance, when, struck with the impropriety, he took the 



206 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

hand of the Princess, just as she "was about to be turned 
by the Colonel, and led her to the bottom of the dance. 
The Duke of York and the Princess Augusta came next, 
and they turned the Colonel without notice or exception. 
The Duke of Clarence with the Princess Elizabeth came 
next, and he followed the example of the Prince. The 
dance proceeded, however, and Colonel Lennox and his 
partner danced down, but when they came to the Prince 
and Princess, His Royal Highness led his sister to the 
chair by the side of the Queen. The Queen, then, address- 
ing herself to the Prince, said: " You seem heated, sir, and 
tired." U I am heated and tired, madam," said the Prince, 
"not with the dance, but with dancing in such company." 
" Then, sir," said the Queen, " it will be better for me to 
withdraw, and put an end to the ball." "It certainly 
will be so," said the Prince, "for I never will countenance 
insults given to my family, however they may be treated 
by others." At the end of the dance the Queen and the 
Princesses withdrew, and thus the ball concluded. The 
Prince, with his usual gallantry, afterwards explained to 
Lady Catherine Barnard the reason of his conduct, assur- 
ing her ladyship that it gave him much pain to be under 
the necessity of subjecting a lady to a moment's embarrass- 
ment. • 

On the 6th of February, 1788, His Royal Highness was 
initiated into the mysteries of Freemasonry, at the Star 
and Garter, Pall Mall. His Royal Highness the Duke of 
Cumberland, as Grand Master ; the Duke of Norfolk, the 
Duke of Manchester, and several other noblemen of that re- 
spectable order, attended at the ceremony. 

About this time the first dividend of the Prince's debts 
was declared to be nine per cent., which was very gladly 
received by the creditors, and tended to raise the Prince in 
the estimation of the people. 

He now for a short time took up his residence at Rich- 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 207 

mond House, the cause for which will be subsequently ex- 
plained. On the 20th of April, 1778, the comedy of " The 
Way to Keep Him" was privately performed before the 
Prince ; the characters being cast as follows : 

Lovemore Lord Derby. 

Sir Brilliant Fashion Hon. Mr. Edgecumbe. 

Sir Bashful Constant Major Arabin. 

William Sir Harry Englefield. 

Sideboard Mr. Campbell. 

"Widow Belmour Hon. Mrs. Hobart. 

Mrs. Lovemore Hon. Mrs. Damer. 

Lady Constant Miss Campbell. 

Muslin Mrs. Bruce. 

The prologue was written by the Eight Honorable George 
Conway, and spoken by the Honorable Mrs. Hobart. Of 
this lady, who afterwards became the Countess of Berk- 
shire, we shall have to speak hereafter, when, accord- 
ing to the fashion of the times, she presided at a faro 
table which was frequented by the Prince ; and where 
on some evenings she gave her dramatic readings, in 
which sherwas assisted by that sprightly and witty bar- 
rister, Mr. Jekyll. 

The following additional lines were made to the prologue, 
in compliment to the Prince and the Duke of Cumberland, 
Who very condescendingly noticed this mark of the atten- 
tion of their visitors : 

"And should those favor'd feats, this happy night, 

Shine with a lustre eminently bright; 

Should royal greatness humbly condescend 

To lay the prince aside, and act the friend, 

Indulgent to the liberal arts they love, 

They'll strive to pardon faults they can't approve, 

And could their flattering smiles with equal ease 

As the ambition give the power to please, 

"We'd fill the mimic as the real part, 
• And pay in- duty what we want in art." 



208 THE PKIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

Among the audience present were the Prince, the Duke 
of Cumberland, Lord and Lady Stormont, Mrs. Fitzherbert, 
the Duchess of Devonshire, Mr. Dundas, Mr. Sheridan, 
and, what was considered very wonderful, Mr. Fox and 
Mr. Pitt came in together. The Duke of Richmond was 
sole attendant and master of the ceremonies on this 
occasion. 

Since the time of Charles I private theatricals have 
always been a popular amusement at the English Court, 
continuing to the present reign, the daughters of Yictoria 
having participated in these amusements in the season of 
1873. The Prince was exceedingly fond of amateur con- 
certs and theatricals. He visited the famous bon vivant, 
the Earl of Sandwich, satirized by Churchill under the 
name of Jemmy Twitcher, at Christmas, 1789, at the EarPs 
seat, at Hinchinbroke ; a splendid theatre was arranged; 
" Love a-la-Mode" and "High Life Below Stairs" were acted 
by noble amateurs, with a prologue spoken by L. Brown 
Esq., M. P. for Huntingdonshire. The mornings were de- 
voted to concerts, the Prince performing on the violoncello ; 
Madam Mara, then in the height of popularity, came from 
Burleigh with the Earl of Exeter; an excellent band, led 
by Ashley, was engaged, and his lordship assisted as usual 
on the kettledrums. Peter Pindar, speaking of the Earl's 
performance on that instrument, says : 

; ' He beats old Ashbridge on the kettledrums." 

The Prince remained here a week, and on departing ex- 
pressed the liveliest appreciation of the pleasure he had 
experienced from his visit. 

Soon after he attended the races at York. 

From York the Prince proceeded to Wentworth House, 
the seat of Earl Fitzwilliarn, the heir of the estate and vir- 
tues of the illustrious Marquis of Rockingham. At this 
hospitable mansion a magnificent fete was prepared in his 
honor. Nothing could be more superb and sumptuous 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 209 

than the whole of the arrangements. In the true style of 
old English hospitality, which is nowhere to be found in 
greater perfection than in the county of York, nor exer- 
cised with more generous splendor by any nobleman than 
the worthy representative of the house of Wentworth, the 
gates of Wentworth Park, on being honored with the pres- 
ence of the heir apparent, were thrown open to the love 
and loyalty of the surrounding country, and no fewer than 
twenty thousand persons partook of the liberality of the 
noble owner. The diversions (consisting of all the rural 
sports in use in that part of the country) lasted the whole 
day, and his lordship's park was the grand stage on which 
the numerous personages played their parts. The specta- 
tors were the Prince, with his attendants, and the nobility 
and gentry from every part of the country, without distinc- 
tion. The dinner was an assemblage of every delicacy that 
the world could produce 5 and the ball at night, consisting 
of more than two hundred ladies, the flower of Yorkshire, 
with their partners, was the most brilliant ever seen beyond 
the Humber. 

In coming to town from Wentworth House, the Prince 
encountered an alarming accident, but which was attended 
by no ill consequences. At about two miles north of New- 
ark, a cart, crossing the road, struck the axle of the Prince's 
coach and overturned it. It was on the verge of a slope, 
and the carriage fell a considerable way, turned over twice, 
and was shivered to pieces. There were in the coach with 
the Prince, Lord Clermont, Colonel St. Ledger, and Colonel 
(Lord Yiscount) Lake, recently deceased. Two of the 
Prince's servants were on the box. The Prince suffered a 
slight contusion in the shoulder, and his wrist was sprained. 

The Prince was undermost in the first fall, and by the 
next roll of the carriage was brought uppermost, when, 
with great presence of mind, he disengaged himself, and 
was the first to rescue and disengage his fellow travellers. 



210 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING-. 

Lord Clermont was the most hurt. He was much wounded 
in the face, and was otherwise so severely bruised that he 
was obliged to remain at Newark. The other gentlemen 
were, like the Prince, fortunate enough to escape with little 
injury. The accident happened at ten o'clock at night, and 
it was a clear moonlight. The carriage was the Prince's 
own travelling coach, with hired horses and postilions ; and 
the mischance was occasioned by the wilfulness of the pos- 
tilions, who drove to clear the cart with their common pre- 
cipitation. 

There was one peculiarity in the style of living which 
distinguished the Prince at this time, which gave great 
offence to the King, although it was by no means regarded 
as so venial by some of the other branches of the royal fam- 
ily, and particularly so by his mother, who, having been 
brought up in Germany, assimilated her habits in a great 
degree with those of that country, although at the same 
time she identified herself as much as possible with the 
more staid and formal ones of the English people. The 
Duke of York had also just arrived from the native country 
of his mother, completely Germanized, and immediately 
despised, as he was wont to call it, the monastic gloom of 
an English Sunday evening, by frequenting the evening con- 
certs and conversaziones , which it was at this time the 
fashion to hold on a Sunday evening, the Sabbath. These 
meetings at Carlton House were rich and inspiring to the 
devotees of mirth and harmony j but, in justice we must 
add, that had they been confined to music only, or to a dis- 
play of harmless jollity, even perhaps the most rigid Cal- 
vinist would not have raised his voice against them, much 
less have visited them the whole weight of his zealous 
fury $ but they were the resort of the titled profligates of 
both sexes, and some of the meetings were distinguished by 
bacchanalian and Circean scenes, which would have merited 
castigation on any night, much more so on the Sabbath. It 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 211 

must, however, be mentioned that the King himself fre- 
quently indulged in music on a Sunday evening, until the 
bishops interfered in the same laudable manner as they did 
with the short petticoats of the figurantes of the Opera 
House, although it were a curious question to decide 
whether they were the eye witnesses of the abomination, or 
took their measures from the opinion of others; yet the 
King, actuated by the genuine spirit of piety, was no sooner 
informed that the practice of holding Sunday evening con- 
certs was contrary to the due observance of the Sabbath, 
and having, at the same time, received some information of 
the scenes that were pasing on a Sunday evening in the 
house of the heir apparent, than he immediately caused it 
to be known to the nobility and gentry of all the royal 
house, that it would be expected they should dispense with 
all Sunday evening concerts and entertainments of the 
kind, as everything of that nature would be discountenanced 
by the King. As it may be supposed, the command was 
laughed at by all those who were not of the royal house- 
hold, or who were not dependent on royalty for a pension ; 
but at Carlton House and other places it became a standing 
joke, and with some of the party it was their regular custom 
to send to the bishops who might be resident in London a 
polite invitation to a Sunday evening conversazione, as the 
most rational method of recreating themselves from the 
fatigues of the day. The Prince was considered at the head 
of this party, and, consequently, the whole weight of the 
indignation of his royal father fell upon him ; but parental 
authority was rejected, clerical interference was laughed at, 
and although at Court the evening concerts were suspended, 
yet, in some of the most exalted coteries of the fashionable 
world, they were followed with an enthusiasm which 
appeared to exhibit the Sabbath as a day of jollity and 
mirth, not of devotion and pious exercises. 
The following anecdote will show the promptitude with 



212 THE PRIVATE LIFE OP A KING. 

which the Prince would sometimes embrace an idea that 
could promote the interest ^of the kingdom, and is thus 
recorded by a writer of that period : Lord Rodney, dining 
some months ago at Carlton House, congratulated the 
Prince on seeing a plate of British cared herrings at table. 
"Tour Eoyal Highness," said the noble veteran, "does 
infinite good to the British navy in encouraging this exam- 
ple of English luxury ; every table will follow the fashion, 
and, if the number of fashionable tables in the nation be 
considered, the result may be in time an addition of twenty 
thousand of the hardiest seamen to our navy — of seamen 
raised and employed in that branch of fishery that has 
raised Holland to her maritime force.' 7 " My lord," replied 
the Prince, " you do me more justice than I deserve ; these 
herrings, I am sorry to say, were not cured by British 
hands. I understand your reasoning, it is just ; it is that of 
Lord Rodney upon his own element. Henceforward I shall 
order a plate of British cured herrings to be purchased at 
any expense, and appear a standing dish at this table — we 
shall call it a Rodney. Under that designation, what true 
patriot will not follow my example?' 7 Por a long time 
afterwards a red herring was called a " Rodney, 77 but the 
origin of the name was not generally known. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 213 



®tatrt*r fixtft. 



If we were to draw a comparison of the close of the last 
century and the present period, we must confess that, in 
regard to the morality and purity of the female character, 
the preference is decidedly to be given to the latter. About 
the year 1790, the principal gambling tables, or faro banks, 
were kept by titled ladies, who hesitated not to repair their 
shattered fortunes frdm the accruing profits. And it 
may easily be conjectured that these nocturnal meetings, 
although avowedly held for the purpose of gambling, were 
often scenes of a far different description, frequented as 
they were by all the younger branches of nobility and men 
of fortune, who were certain of meeting there with the 
most dashing Cyprians of the age, and also with some who 
were training up to that character under the auspices of 
the patroness of the night. The lady who was most con- 
spicuous at this time at the head of her faro table was the 
celebrated Lady Archer, a woman steeped to the crown of 
her head in infamy and vice, and who, when she left this 
mortal stage, was unable to say, " I have performed one 
good or generous action." 

We would rather avert our view from the scenes which 
took place in the harem of this woman, but the illustrious 
subject of the present Memoir is deeply concerned in them 3 
and the writer of it has, in the entire ruin of a very near 
relative, reason to deprecate the hour when this woman's 
eyes first opened on the world, and to regret that she was 
not swept from it as a pestilence in which no human hap- 



214 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

piness could live ; and yet, to the close of her life, this 
Hecate of iniquity shone conspicuously for piety and relig- 
ion.* She was seen on the Sabbath bending her way to 
the conventicle — a living painted sepulchre, so bedaubed 
with cosmetics, and the wrinkled deformities of her nature 
so filled up with the impotent remedies of art, that the eye 
shrunk from the view, as if it had presented it to one of 
nature's vilest abortions ; but 

" Not Archer's Bible can secure her age, 
Her threescore years are shuffling with her page ; 
While Death stands by, but, till the game is done, 
To sweep that stake in justice long his own." 

In all the arts and mysteries of love she was acknowledged 
to be the paragon of the day 5 and one of the first who fell 
into the snares of this accomplished Circe was the Duke of 
York. Reascending in the scale of the alphabet, in regard 
to the names of her admirers, we find her at last under the 
protection of Mr. Errington, the cousin of Mrs. Fitzherbert; 
and it was by this gentleman that the Prince was intro- 
duced to the faro table of Lady Archer. At this period her 
ladyship was the mother of three lovely daughters, whom, 
from the laudable plea of not exposing them to the snares 
and temptations of the world, she kept in a state of almost 
monkish seclusion. But the real grounds for that mode of 
treatment was the loss of the income derivable from their 
fortunes, which was to be at the disposal of their mother 
until their marriage. Yigilant, however, as the mother was, 
and strictly as she supposed that she was guarding the 
Hesperian fruit, two of her daughters, whilst her ladyship 
was presiding at her faro table, let young Love in at the 
window, and the mischievous urchin one night opening the 
door, they rushed into the arms of their lovers, and, by their 
subsequent marriage, Lady Archer lost the usufruct of theft 

* Huish. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 215 

fortune. One, however, still remained — the loveliest of the 
three ) and Lady Archer, fearing that she might follow the 
example of her sisters, determined that she should be her 
companion during her nocturnal revels ; and thus was she 
introduced into a society in which female virtue was of no 
estimation, and in which it might with truth be said to have 
no existence at all. The Prince saw the beautiful daughter 
of Lady Archer, and for a time the charms of Mrs. Fitzher- 
bert were neglected by him. But in this instance he had a 
very difficult and delicate part to act. Mr. Errington was 
generally the attendant of the Prince to the Pandemonium 
of Lady Archer, and any attentions or assiduities which he 
might show to her lovely daughter might be taken notice 
of by that gentleman, and conveyed to a quarter where 
least of all he wished it to be known. Some little bicker- 
ings had already taken place there, in regard to a connection 
which at this time was supposed to exist between the Prince 
and the famous, and we may also add the infamous, Lady 
Jersey 5 but it was then only floating on the surface of popu- 
lar report, although credited by those who moved in the 
particular sphere of the Prince. 

The Prince now looked round him for an auxiliary to 
assist him in the conquest of the youthful Archer, and he 
very judiciously selected an individual who was in every 
respect calculated for the purpose, and this was no other 
than the Honorable Mrs. Hobart, to whom we have briefly 
alluded in a former page. The first step which this lady 
took was to give a grand masked fete at her superb villa in 
thfc vicinity of Fulham, to which Lady Archer and her 
daughter were to be invited, and where the Prince, assisted 
by the disguise of a masquerade, would be enabled to whis- 
per the effusions of his unalterable love into the ears of the 
new conqueror of his affections, without the Argus eyes of 
jealousy being constantly upon him. On referring to the 
"European Magazine" for July, 1791, we find the following 



216 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

description of this memorable fete, which was attended 
with some very extraordinary circumstances to the Prince 
of Wales : 

" Mrs. Hbbarfs Rural Breakfast and Promenade, 
" June 28. 

" This long looked for and long prevented dejeune was given yesterday, in 
spite of the weather. It is almost needless to remark, that all the first nobil- 
ity and fashion about town graced this most delightful fete. The Prince 
came first, and precisely at one o'clock. About four or five hundred per- 
sons were present ; among them the Duke of Gloucester, Duchesses of 
Rutland and Gordon, Margrave of Anspach, Mrs. Fitzherbert, the Duke of 
Queensberry, several of the corps diplomatique, and many other foreigners of 
the very first distinction. The Duke of Clarence was expected, but did not 
attend. The breakfast lasted from two till past seven o'clock. 

" The leading personage in this entertainment (which was obliged to be 
confined to the house on account of the weather) was Mrs. Bristow, a near 
relation of Mrs. Hobart. This lady, who had long resided at the Indian 
Court of Lucknow, was every inch a queen. Dressed in all the magnificence 
of Eastern grandeur, Mrs. Bristow represented the Queen of Nourjahad, as 
the Light of the World, in the Garden of Roses. She was seated in the 
large drawing room, which was very beautifully fitted up with cushions in 
the Indian style, smoking her hookah, amidst all sorts of the choicest 
perfumes. Mrs. Bristow was very profuse with her otto of roses, drops of 
which were thrown about the ladies' dresses. The whole house was scented 
with the most delicious fragrance. 

" The company, on entering, were all presented to Mrs. Bristow by Mrs. 
Hobart. Young Keppel, .son of the Margravine of Anspach, was dressed in 
girl's clothes. He was in the character of a Calabrian, and sang some 
charming French songs with the divine Le Texier, who was in woman's 
clothes, as a ballad singer, and played on the fiddle. 

" A lady was dressed as a Savoyard ; she also sang, but could not be 
distinctly heard, on account of an intolerably large mask over her face. 
This lady was afterwards discovered to be Miss Archer, daughter of Lady 
Archer, and to whom the Prince, as a Bohemian nobleman, appeared to pay 
particular attention. 

" Each lady had a lottery ticket given her by Mrs. Hobart on entering 
and each drew a prize. The Duchess of Rutland drew the second highest; 
but the gross lot, or first prize, never went out of the wheel until the last 
lady that drew, and that lady was Miss Archer. It was remarked that, on 
her opening the prize, a deep blush came over her countenance, and she 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 217 

became so confused that Mrs. Hobart led her into an adjoining room, where 
they were soon afterwards joined by the Prince. The party did not break 
up until nearly nine o'clock." 

As it may be supposed, the cause of Miss Archer's con- 
fusion excited considerable surprise, and all were anxious 
to discover it; but it did not transpire until some time 
afterwards, when Mrs. Hobart mentioned it in confidence 
to a friend on whom she could rely — who mentioned it to 
another — and thus it soon became the theme of conversa- 
tion in the immediate coteries where the parties were 
known. 

The plan was entirely devised by Mrs Hobart, with the 
knowledge and privity of the Prince, to declare the ardent 
affection which he entertained for Miss Archer, and the 
prize contained a beautiful locket set round with diamonds, 
in the centre of which was G. P., encircled with the motto, 
u I? amour est Vange du mondeP The present was accom- 
panied by some amorous lines, taken from one of the 
ancient poets, which have been beautifully versified as 
follows : 

" I wish I were the bowl. 
The bowl that she kisses ; 
I would breathe away my soul 
In the goblet of kisses. 

I wish I were a flower, 

Or the dove which sings 
In the evening bower, 

"With sunset on her wings. 

For, if I were a flower, 

I should sleep upon her breast ; 
And, if I were a dove, 

I would sing her to her rest ; 

And lovely her slumbers, 

And sweet her dreams should be, 
And beautiful her waking, 
If watched by me." 
10 



218 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 

This meeting may be considered as the declaratory one 
of the Prince's passion for Miss Archer ; and, perhaps, no 
female virtue ever withstood so nobly the incessant attacks 
of an assailant, hitherto deemed irresistible. There was, 
however, a power watching over the virtue of this intended 
victim, which ultimately saved her from the ruin that 
awaited her, and that power was a deep and rooted attach- 
ment for another, but whose circumstances in life were con- 
sidered by her mother as not sufficiently affluent, nor could 
his connections boast of any titled descent or aristocratical 
honors. Flattered, however, as she might have been by 
the marked attention which the most accomplished Prince 
in Europe had paid her, still, with the holy lire of a secret 
love burning within her, she considered every return that 
she might make to his protestations as a direct profanation 
of the vows of fidelity and constancy which she had sworn 
to another, and consequently she met all his assiduities 
with the most marked coolness and indifference. To ex- 
perience a repulse of this kind was a very uncommon cir- 
cumstance in his career of gallantry; but, rather than 
operating as a check, it appeared to act as a stimulus, and 
to goad him on to the final consummation of his wishes. 

If, however, this amiable girl was able to withstand the 
blandishments by which she was surrounded, and to rise 
superior to all the stratagems which were employed to effect 
her downfall, there was one individual at the fete who was 
determined, coute qui coute, to chain the Prince to her car, 
and to be the temporary ascendant in his affections, to the 
complete discomfiture and mortification of her aspiring 
rivals. This lady was the Queen of Nourjahad, the Light 
of the World — the beautiful Mrs. Bristow. To account for 
the determined spirit with which this elegant female prose- 
cuted her amour with the Prince, it may be said to have 
arisen, in a great degree, from a revengeful disposition, for 
some supposed or real affront which Mrs. Fitzherbert had 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 219 

offered to her, in refusing to acknowledge her in public, on 
account of the questionable purity of her character. 

To humble a rival of this kind was the pride and glory 
of Mrs. Bristow ; and being in the possession of personal 
charms very little inferior, if any, to Mrs. Fitzherbert her- 
self, it was a struggle of ascendancy between these cele- 
brated beauties, in which each claimed the conquest, and 
each believed herself to have achieved it. It was also cur- 
rently reported at this time that Mrs. Fitzherbert had been 
heard to say, " that it was the rank of His Eoyal Highness 
that she loved more than his j)erson j* and, as this report 
was found to be actually true, it was greedily taken advan- 
tage of by her artful rival to exalt herself and to debase 
Mrs. Fitzherbert in the good opinion of the Prince. It was 
aptly and jocosely said by Sheridan, u that the Prince was 
too much every lady's man to be the man of any lady f and 
this was a trait in his character of which Mrs. Fitzherbert 
was by no means ignorant. The disparity of their ages 
stood in the way of any permanent attachment $ personal 
esteem and regard for each other's virtues formed no part 
of their connection $ it was, on one hand, the enjoyment of 
the sensualist ; and, on the other, the gratification of female 
vanity and the love of personal aggrandizement. The 
monopoly of his affections was a task which no woman who 
had the slightest insight into his character would ever 
attempt to accomplish; and, therefore, Mrs. Fitzherbert 
looked upon the temporary ascendancy of Mrs. Bristow 
with the eye of comparative indifference, being conscious to 
herself that any attempt at restraint on her part would only 
lead to a greater estrangement ; and, as the world believed 
her to possess the ascendancy in his affections, she was 
satisfied with the shadow, although she could not always 
command the substance. 

On the morning subsequent to the fete given by Mrs. 
Bristow, as the Prince was sitting at breakfast in company 



220 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

with Sheridan and Hanger, a small package was delivered 
to him, which, on opening, he fonnd to contain the locket 
which, on the previous night, he had presented to Miss 
Archer, but with no other notification than a few words 
written in the envelope : " La vertu est lafelicite de la vie." 

In regard to the following conversation, which took place 
on this occasion, we must be excused for giving it verbatim, 
as it appears in the manuscript before us, which was found 
amongst the papers of the late Lord Coleraine, headed, A 
Prince's Opinions of Female Virtue. If opinions were always 
the criterion of, or a clue to, the development of human 
character, we should consider ourselves liable to censure if 
we suppressed a tittle of any conversation in which a man 
exhibits himself in his real, unsophisticated colors, by an 
unreserved disclosure of his sentiments ; but, with the 
knowledge which Ave possess of the real opinions which the 
Prince entertained of the existence and the strength of 
female virtue, we are certain that any estimate which an 
individual might be tempted to draw of the Prince's real 
character, from the sentiments expressed on this occasion, 
would be one of error and misconception. 

u Sheridan," said the Prince, laying the package on the 
table, "what is your opinion of the strength of female 
virtue ?" 

" It is the brightest pearl in the diadem of a woman, " an- 
swered Sheridan $ u and when supported by modesty, 
truth, and religion, it is a rock in the ocean, against which 
all the waves may dash in vain $ but, on the other hand, 
when once an impression has been made upon it, under the 
influence of passion, it is like the frostwork of an autumnal 
morning, which is dissolved by the first ardent beam that 
falls upon it." 

"Do you think," asked the Prince, "that there is any 
female virtue that cannot be overcome V 

u Sheridan," said Hanger, " let His Eoyal Highness 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 221 

answer his own question. I know no one more able. An 
individual who has travelled a road five hundred times, and 
stopped at every house that presented itself, must be able 
to give a correct account of them." 

"But suppose," said the Prince, "that that individual 
was refused admittance to some of them ; would it be fair 
to pass an opinion of the character of their inmates, accord- 
ing to that which you may have formed of those into whose 
houses you may have been admitted 'V 

" It would be illiberal in the extreme," said Hanger. 

"Then, by the same parity of reasoning," said the 
Prince, "it would be illiberal in me to pass a general 
opinion of the strength of female virtue from my own single 
experience." 

" There is a great deal of sophistry in that remark," said 
Sheridan ; " for is not the most valuable part of our knowl- 
edge founded on experience ? And therefore, let the subject 
be what it may, that man must be the wisest who has had 
the greatest experience in it $ and who will dispute the ex- 
perience of your Royal Highness in everything relative to 
the character of woman ?" 

" But in which I am still a fool," said the Prince 5 " and 
of that fact Archer's daughter has just now convinced me. 
She has given me a lesson to read which I never studied 
before. But, to repeat my question — do you believe that 
there is any female virtue existing which cannot be over- 
come — I mean, supposing that it has been subjected to 
every temptation and every ordeal which the most fertile 
ingenuity can devise T 

"Most undoubtedly," replied Sheridan; " and I should 
be very sorry to hold a contrary opinion. I believe in the 
existence of a pure, unsullied female virtue, with the same 
religious certainty as I do, according to the dictates of my 
moral sense, in the existence of right and wrong." 

" I dispute not the existence of it, nor ever did," said the 



222 THE PRIVATE LIFE OP A KING. 

Prince j u its very destruction presupposes that it did once 
exist ; for that can never be destroyed which had no pre- 
vious reality— but it is the fact of its invincibility that I 
wish to have established." 

" Then look to Lucretia, your Royal Highness," said 
Sheridan. 

" A solitary instance," said the Prince, " which history 
has treasured up to show as a phenomenon; but let me 
state a case to you : 

u Supposing a woman were to present herself before you, 
gifted with all the beauty which invests the female with 
such irresistible power, and you found that the possession 
of that beauty was not to be obtained by the ordinary means 
of seduction, what would then be your opinion, and how 
would you act ?" 

" I would let her alone," said Sheridan, u and hold her as 
a sacred thing." 

"And declare it to the world," said the Prince, "that her 
virtue was invincible." 

" Certainly," said Sheridan, " as far as the means that' 
have been employed to overcome it." 

" That virtue is still but negative in my opinion," said 
the Prince, " for a fortunate expedient might still effect its 
conquest." 

"Before, however," said Sheridan, "I pronounce a virtue 
as incorruptible, invincible, I am supposed to believe that 
every expedient has been tried, even the scarcely resistible 
expedient of a deeply rooted, passionate attachment; for, if 
a girl falls not to that, I would fearlessly expose her to 
every other temptation which the utmost ingenuity of man 
could devise. I consider the contemplation of a woman, 
strong, firm, unconquerable in her virtue, to be one of this 
World's finest spectacles." 

" What is the mere contemplation V said the Prince ; " I 
can look at the stars and admire them in their glory, but 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 223 

how am I benefited by that contemplation? there is no 
sensual gratification in it." 

" Certainly not/' said Sheridan, " but there is a pleasing 
sensation conveyed to the mind by the contemplation of 
any beautiful or sublime object." 

" Apropos," said the Prince, " speaking of the contem- 
plation of a beautiful object, I have been very much struck 
with a singular remark of Dr. Darwin's, wherein he says 
that the delight which the eye of man experiences in the 
contemplation of a female bosom arises from the associa- 
tion that it is the source from which we drew our first sus- 
tenance." 

u Indeed," said Sheridan, with a smile, " then why do we 
not feel the same delight at the contemplation of a wooden 
spoon V * 

" Excellent !" exclaLned the Prince, " excellent — in future 
I shall never see a beautiful bosom but I shall think of 
Sheridan's wooden spoon — nevertheless, you must allow 
that contemplation is one thing, enjoyment another, and to 
which would you give the preference ?" 

"To each," said Sheridan, a in their own individuality; 
but they are as distinct in their natures as they are differ- 
ent in the effects that are produced. The contemplation of 
a beautiful woman, abstractedly speaking, depends entirely 
in its degree of delight upon the innate power which we 
possess of actually determining what beauty is — the mere 
question of enjoyment may be decided by a Caliban, to 
whom sense is everything — mind nothing. There is, how- 
ever, another point to be taken into consideration, which is, 
that there is one sense which nature has implanted in the 
heart of every female, and on the facility or difficulty of the 

* This inimitable reply of Sheridan's has been erroneously claimed by 
another individual, who, it is well known, strutted about, decked with plumes 
borrowed from others , but it is only in the master mind of a Sheridan that 
such a happy idea could have been engendered. 



224 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

suppression or suspension of that sense, the great question 
may be determined of the strength or weakness of her 
virtue." 

"And what is that sense?" asked the Prince. 

"Now," said this royal libertine, "yesterday I was at 
Hobart's/<ste, and there, I will not say exactly by assigna- 
tion, I saw that lovely girl, the daughter of that d — d Lady 
Archer." 

" Ripe as a cherry," exclaimed Hanger, " and luscious as 
a peach." 

"By the dexterous management of Hobart," continued 
the Prince, " I contrived to convey a present into her hands, 
which I intended to be the forerunner of our future intimacy. 
I conversed with her afterwards $ I found her reserved and 
coy, but dest souvent la fagon des jeunes Jilles de jouer le role 
cPune niaise, et de se porter sHls ne savaient pas la difference 
entre un homme a deux jambes, et un bete a quatre. The girl, 
however, is not to be caught in the usual way, for there, in 
that package, lies the present which I gave. Now, what is 
your opinion of that girl ? Is her virtue to be conquered, or 
not?" 

" My opinion is," said Sheridan, " that she is not destined 
for your Royal Highness ; and rather than I would take one 
more step to undermine a virtue of that kind, I would hold 
myself satisfied with what I have already got, and leave her 
the pure and unsullied gem which I found her." 

" A rara avis ! 2b rara avis V exclaimed the Prince ; " a 
Sheridan preaching morality. But now, in the plenitude 
of your merciful and forbearing spirit, will you tell me that 
this virtue is so strongly intrenched that no art, no strata- 
gem, can make a breach in it f 

" That is an opinion which I have never expressed," said 
Sheridan. " In the general intercourse of the world we can 
only judge of particulars from universals — we proceed from 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 225 

unities to numbers ; and although by that method we some- 
times arrive at an erroneous estimate, yet in the present 
case it will hold good. That girl, I say, will never be 
yours." 

u By G — d ! but she shall," said the Prince ; and, rising 
from the table, he placed the rejected present in his escri- 
toire. The conversation afterwards turned upon the enor- 
mous sums which were depending on the races at New- 
market, where the Prince's horse Escape was backed to 
win every race in which he was to start. 

On the evening of this day the Prince repaired to the faro 
table of Mrs. Hobart. The company were unusually numer- 
ous, and it was evident that extraordinary exertions had 
been employed to augment the amusements of the night. 
One apartment was appropriated for music, in which the 
instrumental and vocal performers of the Opera House 
executed some of the most favorite compositions of the day ; 
the room adjoining was fitted up iu the Turkish style, with 
its ottomans and its other voluptuous accessaries ; and it 
only required the slippers at the door to declare the real pur- 
pose for which this apartment was intended. Into this room 
the Honorable Mrs. Hobart conducted His Royal Highness, 
having previously whispered to him that she had something 
of great importance to communicate to him. Sherbet was 
handed to His Royal Highness in a golden goblet ; he threw 
himself on an ottoman ; Hobart, in all the richness of her 
voluptuousness, seated herself by his side. u The point is 
gained," she said; "Archer is yours, if you will pay the 
price !" 

" Impossible !" exclaimed the Prince ; " I cannot believe 
it; you must have been misinformed, for it is only this 
morning that I received back the present which you so 
dexterously conveyed into her hands." 

" That is a trifling circumstance," said Hobart ; " the sud- 
den effect, perhaps, of a qualm of conscience— a matter of 
10* 



226 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

false delicacy. A girl, unless she be a consummate simple- 
ton, generally suspects to what a present leads, or, more 
correctly speaking, to what it is intended that it shall lead ; 
and I have known many girls who have refused a, silver toy, 
and have afterwards accepted of a golden one. Perhaps 
your present was not rich enough. But the truth is — I have 
arranged the business with the mother 5 the price, I must 
confess, is rather high." 

" With her mother, did you say V 7 exclaimed the Prince, 
" with Lady Archer herself? Oh, it is not possible ! Why, 
I should suppose that she was the last person on earth with 
whom you would have conferred on a subject of that nature. 
To consult with a mother on the ruin of her daughter, and 
to arrange a stipulated price for it — such an act is scarcely 
heard of in history ; it is too preposterous, too unnatural, 
for me to entertain the thought for a moment. Hobart, it 
cannot be " 

" But it is true," said Mrs. Hobart ; " and the terms are 
£500 a year for the life of the mother, and a settlement of 
£1,000 a year upon the daughter." 

"And upon the fulfilment of these terms," said the 
Prince, " Lady Archer consents to sacrifice her child P 

" It has been so stipulated," said Mrs. Hobart. 

"Then," said the Prince, rising with indignation, "I 
renounce the business altogether. Whatever may be my 
libertine propensities, never shall posterity have to record 
of me that I could stoop to the infamy of bartering with a 
mother for the ruin of her daughter. I know not by what 
terms to stigmatize this conduct of Lady Archer, nor do I 
consider that there is a word in the English language forci- 
ble enough to express my abhorrence of her character. If 
by any arts, stratagems, or promises, the ruin of a girl be 
accomplished, let the consequences fall on the head of her 
seducer ; but to mingle the infamy with it of having pur- 
chased her innocence of her own mother, is an act that I 



THE PRIVATE LIEE OF A KING. 227 

would not have resting on my conscience to be put in pos- 
session of all the beauties of a seraglio. Tell Lady Archer 
that the Prince, in future, declines her further acquaint- 
ance." 

There never was a state of society so degenerate that it 
did not include a great proportion of good, and consequently 
of goodness ; there never was an individual so thoroughly a 
reprobate as not to possess some redeeming virtues ; and it 
is also generally the case that the strength of those virtues 
is in the ratio of the turpitude of the vices. Be it, therefore, 
a part of our task, the best and dearest part, to show the 
bright picture by the side of the dark one. We will endea- 
vor to place before our readers " the counterfeit present- 
ment" of those two cousin germans, at least, if not brothers, 
Wisdom and Folly ; we will bid them look on this picture, 
and on this. We will ask them to see what a grace is seated 
on this brow, and will enable them to contrast it with the 
cap and bells that jingle on the forehead of the other ; we 
will, in short, strive to place before them " Hyperion ? and 
" the Satyr" side by side, and then, if they will quit the one 
to dwell with the other — if they will 

* On this fair mountain leave to feed. 
To batten on this moor," 

they must — but it shall not be for want of seeing the quali- 
ties of each, and the differences and distinctions that sub- 
sist between them. 

The issue of this affair of Lady Archer was the very op- 
posite to what was expected either by that lady herself or 
Mrs. Hobart. To find a sense of feeling or of honor in the 
Prince, when the possession of a beautiful girl was the 
question, appeared in their eyes as little short of a miracle 
— a complete metamorphosis of the man must have sud- 
denly taken place, or he Avould not, from a mere qualm of 
conscience, have thrown away so rich a prize, especially as 
some cases of seduction on the part of the Prince had come 



228 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

to the knowledge of those ladies, in which a complete 
obtuseness of feeling was displayed in regard to the meas- 
ures which were adopted to accomplish the end in view. 
But it was not the untoward issue of this business, as far 
as regarded the daughter of Lady Archer, that excited the 
regret of the interested parties, but it was the resolution of 
the Prince to withdraw himself altogether from the faro 
tables of both Lady Archer and Mrs. Hobart ; and this was 
a loss of no trifling consideration, for, independently of the 
sums which he lost nightly, his presence gave a rank and 
character to their parties which rendered them the most 
attractive assemblies of the day. 

Numerous and ingenious were the attempts that were 
made to bring the deserter back, and all of them had a 
reference to the gratification of his paramount passions. 
If some exquisite beauty had burst suddenly upon the 
world, she was only to be seen at Mrs. Hobart's or Lady 
Archer's. But for a time the Prince withstood all the 
allurements, until the celebrated Lucy Howard — that mas- 
terpiece of God's creation — who 

'• Was sent on earth 
To show to man what angels are in heaven," 

was brought by Mrs. Hobart from her father's mansion in 
Yorkshire to captivate the aifections of the heir apparent, 
and to bring him again within the circle, of her influence. 
The game was deeply and skilfully played, and the royal 
stakes were won. Lucy Howard was to be contended for, 
and she was a prize for which many a sovereign would 
have given the brightest diadem in his crown. 

Lucy Howard was, as might naturally be expected, on 
her first visit to London, a perfect novice in the world. 
Her father was first cousin to Mrs. Hobart, in possession of 
but a very moderate income, with a large and expensive 
family to support. She had two sisters, almost equal to 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OP A KING. 229 

herself in beauty, one of whom married a gentleman of con- 
siderable fortune, and for a time was the leader of the fash- 
ionable world, the presiding goddess of Portman square. 
She afterwards resided in Grosvenor place, an expressive 
memento of the transitory duration of personal beauty. 
Of the other sister we shall have more to relate, when she 
appeared at Court as the wife of a Nottinghamshire gentle- 
man, the admiration of every beholder — the ruling toast of 
the debauchee — the identical female of whom the amorous 
Duke of Queensberry declared that to u inhale her breath 
would restore him to juvenility," and who became the 
avowed object of the attachment of the Prince of Wales, 
he being himself ignorant at the time that she was actually 
the sister of his once adored Lucy Howard. 

We will not transcribe the scenes which led to the fall of 
this earthly angel, but the visitants of Brighton may recol- 
lect a comfortable mansion which stands about three miles 
from the town, at the foot of a wood, on the right hand of the 
road leading from London, and to this place was Lucy 
Howard conveyed — the secret love of the Prince. It has 
been mentioned as rather a remarkable circumstance that 
no issue was ever known to emanate from any of the 
amours of either the Prince of Wales or the late Duke of 
York. We have it, however, in our power to contradict 
that statement, as far as concerns the former illustrious per- 
sonage, for in this retreat at Brighton Lucy Howard be- 
came the mother of a child, which, however, lived but to 
its second year, and was buried in Brighton churchyard 
under the name of George Howard. 

This amour of the Prince brings immediately under our 
notice a female whom we deprecate whenever we mention 
her, and who may be considered in the human race as the 
type of the serpent— beautiful, bright, and glossy in its 
exterior — in its interior, poisonous and pestiferous. We 
allude to Lady Jersey, the coadjutor of Dr. Randolph in the 



230 THE PRIVATE LIFE OP A KINO. 

abstraction of the letters of the Princess of Wales, the vile 
instrument of a faction, to heap obloquy on the head of a 
female not half so guilty nor so criminal as themselves. 

It may be easily supposed that the visits of the Prince to 
his beloved Howard were not paid in the open face of day, 
but to avoid suspicion he was generally accompanied by 
Lord Eawdon. It was his usual custom to leave the Pavil- 
ion at twilight, when no official or state business required 
his presence, and, leaving the town by the Lewes road, ride 
over the Downs to the arms of his expecting beauty. 
There was, however, one person who witnessed these mys- 
terious motions of the Prince, and who, fancying herself to 
be then paramount in his affections, could not brook the 
idea of a secret rival, and, with all the art and cunning in- 
herent in her character, she determined to trace the mys- 
tery to its source. For this purpose she enlisted in her 
cause one of the stable boys, who could not withstand the 
temptation of a few guineas, and he consented to become a 
spy upon the actions of his royal master, and to follow him 
in private whenever he left the Pavilion on his nocturnal 
adventures. The first report of this fellow to his employer 
was, that he had traced the Prince to a particular house, 
but of the motives of his visit, or of the character of the in- 
mates of it, he was utterly ignorant. Here were materials 
furnished sufficient to set the heart of a jealous woman in a 
blaze. It was indispensably necessary that the exact re- 
lations of the inhabitants of the house should be ascer- 
tained 5 for Lady Jersey was too well acquainted with the 
character of the Prince not to suspect that he was attracted 
thither by some hidden beauty, who might eventually 
supersede her in the station which she supposed that she 
held in the affections of her royal paramour, and thereby 
overthrow at once all the plans which she had formed for 
her future aggrandizement. The issue of this affair was of 
a deeply tragical nature. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 23l 

The youthful emissary of Lady Jersey, without the aid 
of experience or of caution to guide him through such a 
labyrinth, went fearlessly to work. In an ill-fated hour he 
was entrapped in the vicinity of the premises by the Prince 
himself. An instantaneous explanation was demanded — 
the boy hesitated — the Prince became exasperated — he be- 
held himself the object of the curiosity of a vulgar, merce- 
nary hireling — and, hurried along by the impetuosity of his 
feelings, he inflicted that summary chastisement upon the 
boy which rendered him a cripple for the remainder of his 
life, and which, but for the aid of the highest professional 
skill, would have proved his death. 

This affair caused an extraordinary sensation in the 
country, and rendered the Prince highly unpopular 5 and 
such was the excitement which it occasioned that the 
house in which Lucy Howard resided was literally so be- 
sieged by spectators during the day that she eventually 
found it necessary to evacuate it, and took up her resi- 
dence in the vicinity of Richmond. Thither the Prince 
followed her, and there is a tree now standing in Richmond 
Park, with the initials G. P. and L. H. cut on it, as a 
memorial of the . happy hours which they spent under its 
shade. 

Lucy Howard afterwards became the wife of Mr. Smith, 
a gentleman of independent property in Yorkshire, and 
was the mother of a numerous family, and died respected 
by all who knew her.* 

*1830. 




232 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A XING. 



(StayUx $mn. 



The Prince at this period was the most talked of man in 
Europe. His style of living was of unparalleled costli- 
ness. His elegant manners, his graceful person, and 
exquisite taste in dress, the decorations of his palace, his 
equipages and entertainments, were the theme of praise 
and the objects of imitation. It would seem as if nature 
and fortune had conspired to make him the recipient of 
their choicest gifts. His residence at Carlton House was a 
brilliant Court, where the genius and talent of the nation 
mingled with favorites of the Prince, whose presence 
would never have been tolerated by his father. His other 
residence, the famous Pavilion at Brighton, which has 
been the subject of so much ridicule, was decorated in a 
style more gaudy than elegant ; something in the manner 
in which our Hudson River steamers were bedizened a 
quarter of a century since. 

The Pavilion has been stigmatized as an architectural 
monster — a mad house or a house ran mad — having neither 
beginning, middle, or end; yet, to acquire this harlequin 
design, a bricklayer was despatched to Italy, at an expense 
of $10,000, which was a fitting prelude to the enormous 
sums lavished upon the nondescript after its construction 
was determined upon. The dining room was so badly venti- 
lated that, when a fire was lighted, it was so warm that the 
inmates were nearly baked. This circumstance gave rise 
to one of those bon mots which were so natural to Sheridan. 
He and Hanger dining one day in this royal oven, the for- 
mer said to the latter, " How do you feel, Hanger P 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 233 

" Hot, hot, hot as h — I," replied Hanger. 

u It is quite right/' said Sheridan, u that we should be 
prepared in this world for that which we know will be our 
lot in another." 

The ground upon which the Pavilion is built was owned 
by the town of Brighton, for which the Prince paid $250 
per annum, just sufficient, said the satirical Anthony Pas- 
quin, to furnish the members of the corporation with grog 
and tobacco. 

Greville says: "About this time the Pavilion was fin- 
ished, with the subterranean passage from the house to 
the stables, which is said to have cost £3,000 to ^5,000. 
There is also a bath in his apartment ; the King has not 
taken a sea bath for sixteen years." 

The passion of the Prince for the turf at this time 
appears to have been carried to an extraordinary excess. 

He was not only an honorary but an active member of 
the Jockey Club, to which, also, the Duke of Bedford and 
Mr. Fox belonged. 

Of the demoralizing effects of this amusement, when 
conducted as it frequently is, the recent history of the Mar- 
quis of Hastings will testify. It is unnecessary here to 
enumerate the different tricks which horse jockeys are sup- 
posed to employ to give them an undue advantage over 
their opponents. Severe moralists have divided the 
patrons of the turf into two classes — fools who have money 
to lose, and knaves who devise plans to rob them of it. 

An exhibition of noble studs contesting for the palm of 
fleetness is, of itself, an innocent and exhilarating specta- 
cle ; it is only when the amusement degenerates from its 
original intention that it excites our censure. Sportsmen 
form a community of themselves, like the frequenters of 
the Stock Exchange, governed by a code of laws of their 
own framing. 

The decisions of the Jockey Club were confidently ap- 



234 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 

pealed to by all who thought themselves aggrieved by any 
sporting transactions, and the fiats of this body were re- 
garded as standard authority by all who were engaged in 
any pursuits within the sphere of its cognizance. 

But perfection is not the nature of any human institution, 
and, therefore, that the Jockey Club should sometimes err 
in its decisions cannot excite any surprise. In the autumn 
of 1791 the Prince came under the cognizance of this trib- 
unal, and its decision proved so disagreeable to him that 
he immediately retired from the turf. The circumstances 
attending this transaction, which j^roduced so extraordinary 
a sensation in the sporting world at the period when it 
happened, were nearly as follows : 

On the 20th of October, 1791, the royal sportsman's horse, 
Escape — then reckoned the best horse upon the turf — was 
beaten at Newmarket by two horses of inferior reputation. 
The odds, which previous to this race had run high in 
favor of Escape, now changed against him, and it was the 
general opinion of the sporting world that he would lose 
the match he had to run the next day. Accordingly bets 
were made to a large amount, and with great odds, that 
Escape would lose j but contrary to the opinion, and much 
to the disappointment of the knowing ones, Escape won his 
race. 

The jockey who rode Escape on these two memorable 
days published a pamphlet* a short time before his death, 
in which he very satisfactorily accounted for Escape's losing 
his first and winning his second race. The mystery was 
nothing more than this : that on the first day's race Escape, 

* " Genius Genuine," by Samuel Chifney, of Newmarket. Containing a 
full account of the Prince's horse Escape running at Newmarket, on the 20th 
and 21st days of October, 1791. This curious production made a consider- 
able noise in the sporting world, and though only the size of an ordinary 
pamphlet, containing one hundred and thirty pages, sold at the enormous 
price of two pounds. 



THE PRIVATE LITE OF A KINO. 235 

for want of proper exercise, was not in a fit condition to 
run; and that the exercise of the first day's race had opened 
his pores, and enabled him to perform better on the second 
day y but this was far from appearing satisfactory to the 
gentlemen of the turf, and as soon as the race was con- 
cluded a rumor was propagated that Escape had run un- 
fairly on the first day's race. It was reported that this 
royal sportsman got the grooms out of the way, and had 
given the horse a pail of water just before he had to run, 
and of course the horse was winded and easily beaten. 
Chifhey's own account of these particulars is so very curi- 
ous tl^at we should do wrong to withhold it from our 
readers. 

" As I came from scale," says Chifhey, u I was told that 
Mr. W. Lake (brother to Lord Yiscount Lake, and the gen- 
tleman who had the management of the Prince of Wales* 
running horses) had been saying something improper to 
His Royal Highness concerning Escape's winning ; I made 
it therefore my business to go immediately to His Royal 
Highness, who was riding with a gentleman near to the 
Great Stand House, and he immediately accosted me in the 
following words : c Sam Chifhey, as soon as Escape's race 
was over, Mr. Lake came up to me and said, c I give your 
Royal Highness joy 5 but I am sorry the horse has won, I 
would sooner have given a hundred guineas.' I told Mr. 
Lake that I did not understand him, that he must explain 
himself.' I then answered His Royal Highness, saying — 
4 Yes, your Royal Highness, it is very necessary he should 
explain himself.' This is all that passed on the subject 
to-day." 

Chifhey's further account of this remarkable affair is as 
follows: u On the 22d of October, 1791, in the morning after 
Escape had won, His Royal Highness sent for me into his 
dressing room, and then ordered me to be shown into an 
adjoining room, where he thus accosted me : ' Sam Chifney, 



236 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING-. 

I have sent for you on some very unpleasant business. I 
am told, Sam Chifney, that you won six or seven hundred 
pounds upon the race on the day before yesterday, when 
you rode Escape, and was beaten upon him.' 

u I replied that I believed His Eoyal Highness had not 
such an opinion of me. 

u His Eoyal Highness continued : L I am told, Sam Chif- 
ney, that you won six or seven hundred pounds upon the 
race yesterday, when you rode Escape, and won upon him ; 
and I am told that Yauxhall Clark (clerk of the stables to 
the Prince of Wales) won all the money for you.' I answered, 
c May I not offend by asking who it was that dared to tell 
your Eoyal Highness so V 

u His Eoyal Highness replied, l Sam Chifney, I wish to 
know whether you have any objection to take your affida- 
vit, naming all the bets you had upon the race, every way, 
when you rode Escape, and was beaten upon him on the 
day before yesterday ? I acknowledged ^py readiness to 
do it, if it would give His Eoyal Highness any satisfaction. 
His Eoyal Highness said, ' Sam Chifney, your doing it will 
give yourself satisfaction, it will give the public satisfaction, 
it will give me satisfaction. You will specify in your affida- 
vit all the bets you had upon both day's races, when that 
you rode Escape on the day before yesterday, and was 
beaten upon him 5 and yesterday when that you rode 
Escape, and won upon him, naming all the bets you had 
upon both those races, and to take your affidavit as such. 
I hope, Sam Chifney, you do not misunderstand me.' I 
answered that I did perfectly understand, and that I would 
take care to do as His Eoyal Highness had ordered me. 

6i His Eoyal Highness said, i Sam Chifney, I wish to 
know if you have any objection against being examined by 
the Jockey Club, and in any way that they are pleased to 
think proper.' To which I most fully and freely con- 
sented. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINGr. 237 

"His Eoyal Highness said, "I am told, Sam Chifney, 
that you were arrested at Ascot Heath for £300, and that 
Yanxhall Clark paid the money for you.' I replied that 
this was the first word I had ever heard upon the subject. 
His Eoyal Highness said, I Sam Chifney, I wish to know if 
you have any objection to make an affidavit that you were 
not arrested at Ascot Heath, and that Yauxhall Clark did 
not pay £300 for you?' I replied to His Royal Highness, 
1 1 am very willing to do it. ? " 

After relating some inconsequential particulars, Chifney 
proceeds to state that " On the same morning (22d of Octo- 
ber, 1791) His Eoyal Highness called me across the betting 
ring. I instantly obeyed his commands, and His Royal 
Highness put me between himself and Sir Charles Bun- 
bury, and then rode out upon the heath. After His Royal 
Highness and Sir Charles had talked upon the subject, His 
Royal Highness said, < Sam Chifney, I think that you told 
me that you were willing to be examined by the stewards 
of the Jockey Club in any way they should please to think 
proper.' I said, i Yonr Royal Highness, I am proud to meet 
any man upon the subject.' His Royal Highness then ad- 
dressed himself to Sir Charles Bunbury. < There, Sir 
Charles, you hear him say that he is proud to meet any 
man upon the subject. Now, Sir Charles, I beg of you to 
take every pains you possibly can, so as to make yourselves 
perfectly satisfied ; and then inclose me Sam Chifhey's 
affidavits, and apprise me how the business ends, as I am 
going to Brighton to-night.' His Royal Highness left Sir 
Charles and rode near the betting ring, where, after he 
stood a little while, he said, < Sam Chifney, this business 
should be explained. 1 I answered, L Your Royal Highness, I 
don't know how to explain iV His Royal Highness then rode 
off the turf to town, before the day's sport was finished, and 
I immediately went home. Soon after this, I received from 
Mr. Weatherby, clerk to the Jockey Club, copies of affida- 



238 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

vits which I swore before the Eev. Dr. Frarnpton ; naming 
that I had no bet npon the race, when I rode Escape on the 
20th of October, 1791, and that I had twenty guineas, and 
no more, betted npon Escape on the following day, when I 
rode him on the 21st of October, 1791 j and that I had the 
same desire of winning upon Escape when I rode him on the 
20th of October, 1791, as I had when I rode him on the fol- 
lowing day, the 21st of October, 1791 ; and, further, that I 
had never been arrested on Ascot Heath, and that Mr. 
Yauxhall Clark never did pay any money for me. When I 
had sworn these affidavits, they were signed by the Eev. 
Dr. Frarnpton, and I immediately returned them to Mr. 
Weatherby. 

" I was then had up before the stewards of the Jockey 
Club, who were Sir Charles Bunbury, Bart., Ealph Dutton, 
Esq., and Thomas Panton, Esq. 

a Sir Charles Bunbury asked me some few questions. 
What bets I had upon the first day's race, when I rode 
Escape on the 20th of October, 1791 $ and what bets I had 
upon the race when I rode Escape on the following day, 
when he won, and who made my bets for me ? I answered, 
that I had no bets upon the first day's race; that I betted 
twenty guineas upon Escape the next day, and no more ; 
and that Yauxhall Clark betted for me. 

" Sir Charles Bunbury then proceeded to ask me what 
was my motive for waiting with Escape on the first day. 

"I told Sir Charles Bunbury that he was a wrong judge 
of his man. 

"Sir Charles Bunbury now stopped, and looked about 
apparently dissatisfied. 

" Mr. Dutton said, I think Chifney spoke very fairly. 

" Mr. Panton immediately said, L Yes, very fairly. 7 

u Sir Charles Bunbury did not ask me any more 
questions. 

u I then said to Sir Charles and the two other gentlemen, 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINGK 239 

that my motive for waiting with Escape was, because I 
knew he could run very fast; I likewise knew 8ky LarJc 
could run fast, though a jade, for I had ridden against him 
most of the races he had run. 

"I was now dismissed, and this is everything that 
passed with me from and to the Prince of Wales, Mr. W. 
Lake, and the Jockey Club, on this subject at New- 
market. 

" It may appear to some persons that I was too dry and 
harsh in my answer to Sir Charles Bunbury; the two 
other stewards, however, acknowledged it to be fair. I, at 
this time, had made the affidavit, and had answered every 
particular that was necessary for the Jockey Club; and 
this question of Sir Charles, to know my motives for 
waiting, went into private trials and abilities. But it was 
a personal reason which caused me thus to answer Sir 
Charles. I had been told by a nobleman, that a baronet, 
and a member of the Jockey Club, I believe Sir Charles 
Bunbury, had severely reprobated my conduct on being 
beaten on Escape." 

After some reflections, which could only be found inter, 
esting to those who are concerned in the management of 
running horses, Chifney concludes his narrative in the 
following words: " Some weeks after this, and I well re- 
member that it was after the Duke of York's coming from 
abroad with the Duchess, Sir John Lade wrote to me at 
Newmarket for me to attend on the Prince immediately. I 
went to Carlton House directly, and the Prince told me 
that Sir Charles Bunbury came to him, and told him that 
if he suffered Chifney to ride his horses that no gentleman 
would start against him. The Prince said he told Sir 
Charles Bunbury that, if he or any other person could make 
it appear that Sam Chifney had done wrong, then he would 
never speak to him again ; and without that he would not 
sacrifice him to any person. His Royal Highness then 



240 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

said he should leave the turf, as he could uot be guilty of 
that ingratitude to let his horses go over for the forfeits, 
after being told that no gentleman would start against 
him, but that he should pay the forfeits, and leave the 
turf. His Eoyal Highness then said he could see the 
meaning of it. " They think you, Sam Chifney, a good 
rider, and they think you have won a race or two for me 
that you had no business to have won 5 and that there are 
others who wish to have you, and others who think you too 
good for me, as they know you will not see me robbed." 
His Eoyal Highness then told me he should always be 
glad to see me, and for my own sake to let him see me 
often $ and that, if he ever kept horses again, that I should 
train and manage them. After this I was ordered to 
attend. on His Eoyal Highness at Sir John Lade's, in 
Piccadilly, which I did 5 and, in the presence of Sir John 
Lade and Mr. Philips, His Eoyal Highness put his hand 
upon his bosom, and said that he believed Sam Chiihey 
had been to him very honest, and wished me to under- 
stand that the two hundred guineas a year he gave me 
was for his life, saying, c I cannot give it for your life, I 
can only give it for my own life.' I bowed to His Eoyal 
Highness, and said I was well satisfied." 

In 1802, Chifney relates that, at the Brighton and Lewes 
race time, as the Prince was walking on the Steyne, having 
hold of a gentleman's arm, he approached and told him 
that they cried out very much for him at Newmarket. The 
Prince said, " Sam Chifney, there has never been a proper 
apology made 5 and they used me and you very ill 5 they 
are bad people 5 HI not set my foot on the ground any 
more." 

To show the corrupt appetite of the vulgar for detraction, 
it was currently reported that personal threats, and even 

personal demonstration, had passed from the Duke of 

towards His Eoyal Highness on the racecourse. This, 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINGr. 241 

however, could not have been the case, for the Duke con- 
tinued in friendship with the Prince to the last. The 
singularity, however, of the case is that Sir Charles 
Bunbury, who decided against the Prince, and ejected him 
from the Jockey Club, as well as the Duke, who shook, or 
is said to have shaken, his horsewhip at him on the race 
ground, retained his friendship to the last hours of their 
respective lives. 

Such was the termination of the Prince sportsman's con- 
nection with Newmarket. The Prince, upon this occasion, 
seems to have acted with a very proper degree of spirit and 
firmness, and it would not be easy to produce any reason to 
justify the Jockey Club for declaring that, if he did not dis- 
charge Chifhey from his service, no gentleman would allow 
his horses to run against him. There was something so 
very imperious in this requisition that it was impossible 
that this royal sportsman should comply with it ) and it is 
not a little extraordinary that the Prince had no bets on the 
first day's race, and that, on the second day's race, his bets 
on Escape did not exceed four hundred guineas. Was this 
a sum that the Prince could possibly be guilty of any unfair 
manoeuvre to win ? Was this a sum that any but a mere 
common swindler of the turf would have hazarded his repu- 
tation to gain by fraud and deception? Could it for a 
moment be thought that, for so paltry a sum as four hun- 
dred guineas, the Prince would commit an action not only 
unworthy of his rank, but which any gentleman would be 
ashamed of doing? Had the sum depending upon the 
event of the race been many thousand pounds, there might 
have been some temptation to foul play, though the fraud 
would still have been as dishonorable. But, in the present 
instance, the Priiice had no adequate motive for doing a 
thing so mean, and so unworthy of elevated rank. 

One night, at Newmarket, he was induced to play at 
hazard with certain individuals whose rank and station 
11 



242 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

precluded the idea of any established or concerted system 
of fraud ; but it must not be concealed that on the head of 
one of these individuals lies the weight of the ruin of more 
families than can be laid to the charge of any other professed 
gambler in the kingdom. On the night in question fortune 
appeared to frown on the Prince with her utmost severity ; 
and, on rising from the table, he found himself the loser of 
nearly £4,000. Some suspicion immediately arose in his 
mind that there must be some fraud at the bottom ; and, 
taking the dice from the table, he put them into his waist- 
coat pocket, declaring that, if the dice were found to be true, 
the money should be paid on the following morning. Con- 
sternation immediately seized the whole of the party 5 they 
knew the dice were plugged, and the discovery of the fraud 
would be attended with the most serious consequences. A 
consultation was held, and it was determined that the only 
method of averting the disclosure of their villany was the 
abstraction of the false dice and the substitution of good 
ones. But how was this difficult task to be accomplished % 
The Prince was at this time a visitor of the Duke of 
Bedford, whose house was the resort of all the sporting 
characters at Newmarket, and at which some of the sharp- 
ers who had concocted the deep laid plan against the 
Prince were on terms of the greatest intimacy. It was, 
therefore, proposed that lots should be drawn, and that the 
individual who drew the lowest number should repair imme- 
diately to the Duke of Bedford's, and by some stratagem 
obtain possession of the dice. Fortunately for the gang, 
the lot fell on a Mr. Russell, who, being himself a distant 
relation of the Bedford family, was less liable to suspicion 
as to his motive for repairing to the house of the Duke, and 
who, besides, being well known to all the domestics, no 
demur would be raised to his admittance. It was, however, 
found impracticable to accomplish the scheme without the 
aid of the domestic who was in close attendance on the 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 243 

Prince $ and, influenced by the bribe of £100, this domestic 
undertook to obtain possession of the waistcoat of Hi s 
Royal Highness when he was undressing for the night, and, 
after abstracting the false dice to substitute the genuine 
ones. The stratagem fully succeeded j Mr. Russell returned 
in triumph to his chapfallen associates j on the following 
morning the Prince had the dice examined, and finding 
them to be good, he paid the amount of his loss without 
any further murmuring. 

This business, however, did not rest here. The parties no 
sooner saw their innocence established than they began to 
vent their indignation, openly and secretly, upon His Royal 
Highness, accusing him of having cast an imputation on 
their characters which they did not deserve ; and declaring 
that it was his rank only which protected him from the 
infliction of the most summary punishment. Reports dis- 
creditable to the character of the royal gambler were now 
circulated in every quarter 5 the popular opinion rose against 
him 5 and the circumstance of his horse Escape, which hap- 
pened immediately afterwards, furnished fresh materials 
for the vindictive spirit of his enemies; the result of all was 
that his name was erased from the list of the members of 
the Jockey Club, and his horses declared incapable of run- 
ning in his own name in future. 

Under these painful circumstances the Prince always 
maintained a dignified attitude. He met the storm which 
gathered around him without fear or despondency, although 
at the same time he could not but regret his forced retire- 
ment from the turf, as it deprived him of one of his most 
favorite amusements, and estranged him in a certain degree 
from the society of particular individuals whom he re- 
spected and esteemed ; but, on the other hand, had there been 
one step which a wise and disinterested counsellor would 
have advised him to adopt — had there been one which a 
sincere friend would have considered it his duty to urge 



244 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

him to— that one would have been his retirement from the 
turf. It was a hot bed in which his most dangerous pas- 
sions were nurtured; it was a sphere in which he sank from 
the dignity of a Prince to become the companion and dupe 
of the unprincipled sharper. To him it appeared a calam- 
ity ; it was. in fact, a blessing to him. He saw in the loss 
of the first race by his horse an actual misfortune, whereas 
it might be characterized as an act of Providence, in its 
being the forerunner and cause of an alteration in his mode 
of life, by which his character was to be retrieved; by which 
he was to be rescued from the fangs of a set of harpies, who 
were fattening on the noble and unsuspicious nature of his 
disposition; and, like the vulture on tbe body of Prome- 
theus, gradually lacerating the vitals of his moral existence. 
By the Prince's sincere friends and well wishers this event 
was hailed with no common satisfaction. The hopes of the 
nation revived ; that he was in some degree estranged from 
the unprincipled abettors of his extravagant propensities, 
and had relinquished a pursuit fraught with ultimate ruin 
to his character and to his finances, he would assume a 
more steady and irreproachable mode of life, and regain the 
good opinion of that people over whom he was destined to 
govern. How far these sanguine expectations were real- 
ized the sequel will sufficiently indicate. To expect a sud- 
den transition from a life of habitual enjoyment and profli- 
gacy to one of domestic habits or personal restraint coidd 
never have been imagined by anyone at all conversant 
with the human character; nor did it follow by any means 
that, although the Prince had been forced to withdraw him- 
self from one pursuit that was attended with an enormous 
expense to him, yet that there were not others of a still 
more ruinous nature to which he was addicted, and which 
he still followed with the reckless enthusiasm of the indi- 
vidual, who, although he sees before him the abyss in which 
his terrestrial happiness is to be destroyed, thoughtlessly 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING-. 245 

rushes into it, never to be afterwards restored to the sta- 
tion which he once held in the ranks of society. 

Towards the latter part of the year 1792 the whole of his 
stud, amounting in all to twenty-eight head, was disposed 
of, and produced what we should at the present day con- 
sider the rather inadequate sum of five thousand guineas. 

This sacrifice, although in every respect it did him honor, 
was, no doubt, a painful one to his feelings. Its bitterness 
was not a little enhanced by the peculiar circumstances of 
the case, as well as the particular good fortune that had 
attended his stud during the previous year. In 1791 we 
find him the winner of no less than thirty-one races, includ- 
ing seven King's Plates ; and it has been very pointedly 
asked, "How it was possible that His Eoyal Highness, 
who, in the year 1791 , won almost every race for which his 
horses started, could, on his retirement from the turf, have 
been so considerable a loser, and involved in such distress- 
ing embarrassments'?"* 

*In order that a correct opinion may be formed of the success of His 
Royal Highness during the year 1191, we subjoin the following: 

Mademoiselle by Diomed, 660 gs. at Newmarket. 

Devi Sing by Eclipse, 150 gs. and £50 at Lewes. 

Don Quixote by Eclipse, 100 gs. and £50 at Newmarket. 

Pegasus by Eclipse, the King's Plate at Newmarket and 140 gs. at Stock- 
bridge. 

Serpent by Eclipse, 80 gs., at Brighton 60 gs., and the Ladies' Plate at 
Lewes. 

Amelia by Highflyer, the Third Class of the Filly Stakes, 1,000 gs. and 
300 gs. at Newmarket, and the Prince's Stakes at Ascot. 

Escape by Highflyer, 250 gs., 1,000 gs., the 140 gs. and 55 gs. at New- 
market. 

Traveller by Highflyer, 400 gs. at Newmarket. 

St. David by Saltram, the second class of the Prince's Stakes at Newmarket. 

Creeper by Tandem, 50 gs. at Newmarket, 60 gs. at Burford, and the 
King's Plates at Lichfield and Burford. 

Baronet by Vertumnus, the Oatlands' Stakes at Ascot, and the King's 
Plates at "Winchester, Lewes, Canterbury, and Newmarket. 

Clementina by Vertumnus, £50 at SwafEham, and 200 gs. at Newmarket. 



246 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

Disgusted with, the treatment that he had received, 
mortified with the stem and unbending disposition of his 
illustrious father, who still refused to admit him into his 
presence — distracted with the incessant clamors of his 
creditors, the Prince determined to seclude himself for a 
time, and took up his residence at the Grange, in Hamp- 
shire. 

It is not on record that at any time of his life he was 
fond of shooting. To the nobler sport of hunting, however, 
he was much attached, and, though never what was called 
a forward rider, was considered a very excellent and dis- 
tinguished judge. During his residence in Hampshire — the 
happiest period, perhaps, of his life — he had as fine a pack 
of fox hounds in his kennel, and, of course, as splendid a 
lot of hunters in his stable, as could be met with in the 
country. The first of these came from Goodwood, Avhere 
they had long formed the much admired kennel of the 
grandfather of the Duke of Richmond, and among the 
latter were not a few thoroughbred ones who had distin- 
guished themselves on the turf, yet were, notwithstanding, 
equal to the weight — by no means an inconsiderable one — 
of His Royal Highness. Among others, Curricle, Aspara- 
gus, Totteridge, and Torbay may be mentioned as at this 
time composing part of his hunting stud; and it is not 
often nowadays, we fear, that such magnificent specimens 
of blood and power are to be met with. 

The Prince, though by no means a bruising rider, was, 
on all hands, acknowledged to be a most elegant and 
accomplished horseman ; and as no less than six packs of 
fox hounds (besides his own) were within easy reach of his 
house, he spent much of his time at this period in the en- 
joyment of that sport. 

The residence of the Prince at Bagshot Park and at 
Kempshott Park was marked by a rural seclusion in 
striking contrast to his life at London and Brighton, and 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 247 

here here he had an opportunity to distinguish the great 
advantages which the simple and regular habits of the gen- 
try surrounding these abodes presented over the hollow 
deceptions and exhaustive vices of what is termed high 
life. 

It was during his seclusion here, and at Oritchill House in 
Dorset, his health, which had suffered from the consequences 
of his free liviug, was restored. 

His residence at the latter place was very short, owing 
to an amour in which he was detected with the only daugh- 
ter of a gentleman resident iu the neighborhood, and 
heiress to the whole of his property. This affair, however, 
did not pass off quite so smoothly as some others in which 
he had been engaged, for the father being a determined, 
high spirited man, and endowed with uncommon personal 
strength, hesitated not one day to give " His Koyal High- 
ness " that summary pugnacious punishment which ren- 
dered his future residence at Oritchill House rather unpleas- 
ant to him. He therefore returned to Brighton, and 
between that place and the metropolis he now passed the 
chief part of his time. 

The legitimate succession to the crown now became the 
theme of the most serious consideration, not only with the 
royal parents of the Prince, but also with the ministers of 
the country. The most tempting offers were held out to 
him to induce him to enter into the married state j but he 
rejected them with the most determined spirit, alleging, as 
the ground of his refusal, that, from the knowledge he 
possessed of his' own character, he was certain he was not 
calculated for the marriage state 5 and that were he to enter 
into that union, it would only be to establish the misery of 
both parties, without, perhaps, being productive of the pur- 
pose for which it was intended. That this studied oppo- 
sition to the dearest wishes of his august father could not 
fail to widen the breach between them may be easily con- 



248 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

ceived ; and it is natural to suppose that those individuals 
who were suspected of possessing a domineering influence 
over the conduct of him were visited with the whole weight 
of the resentment of the royal parents, who beheld, in the 
attachment of their son to certain ladies, the chief and the 
almost insuperable obstacle to his entering into the married 
state ) accordingly every engine was set to work which 
malignity or malice could devise to inflame the minds of 
the people against those individuals ; whilst, at the same 
time, secret agents were employed to pry into their private 
affairs, and, whenever an opening presented itself, there to 
inflict such a death wound as no after palliative could 
remedy. The venal part of the public press was bribed to 
circulate the most inflammatory reports respecting the 
ulterior views of the reputed friends of the Prince, and the 
ruinous consequences that must inevitably await the coun- 
try from his avowed attachment to the Roman Catholic 
party ; in which attachment it was pretended to foresee the 
gradual downfall of the Protestant religion, and the return 
of England, when the time should come that he would have 
to sway the sceptre of it, to all the doctrines of the Eomish 
Church. 

On the other hand, the Prince rallied around him a most 
powerful party, and it must be acknowledged that the 
superiority of talent displayed by his friends tended, in a 
great degree, to turn the tide of popular feeling in his 
favor ; indeed, to such an excess of enthusiasm was the 
contest carried, that on one occasion the populace took the 
horses from Mrs. Fitzherbert's carriage, and drew it to her 
residence. By the serious and reflecting part of the com- 
munity, these ebullitions of popular feeling were regarded 
as a sinister omen of the future state in which the country 
would be plunged, if by any interposition of Providence 
the royal functions were to be again suspended, by the old 
King becoming crazy again, and the reins of Government 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 249 

placed in the hands of the Prince's party. Fortunately, 
however, for the nation at large, the public attention was 
directed to a circumstance, at this moment of paramount in- 
terest, as far as regarded the succession to the crown, and 
that was the marriage of his brother, the Duke of York, 
with the Princess Frederica Charlotte Ulrica, the eldest 
daughter of the late King of Prussia. During his residence 
in Germany, the Duke had conceived an affectionate 
attachment to the Princess, and the sentiment being 
mutual, the consent of parents on both sides was soon ob- 
tained to the marriage, which ceremony took place at 
Berlin on the 29th of September, 1791. On their journey 
from Prussia to this country they were much annoyed by 
the republican mobs, which then abounded in every town 
and village, committing the most atrocious excesses in the 
name of liberty, and insulting, as aristocrats, all persons 
who had a respectable equipage. At Lisle they were ex- 
posed to considerable danger from the savage rabble, whom 
the arms on the carriage had attracted, and who kept pos- 
session of the vehicle till they had completely satisfied 
their -revolutionary spirit by obliterating the ensigns of 
royalty. After encountering many dangers, the royal 
party at length reached the more tranquil shores of Eng- 
land,* and, on the 18th of November, arrived at York 
House, in London, where the Prince of Wales received his 
royal sister in the great hall, and congratulated her, in the 
German language, on her arrival in England. 

It may be necessary to show the prominent part which 
the Prince enacted in the ceremonies of this marriage, in 
order to show how far the etiquette of the Court can demand 
that the smile of personal esteem and affection shall sit 
upon the countenance, whilst some of the most deadly pas- 
sions of our nature are rankling in the heart. The relation 
in which the Prince stood at this time in regard to the King, 
his father, was anything but one of affection, and yet to 



250 THE PRIYATE LIFE OF A KING. 

behold them, in their mutual intercourse with each other, 
subject to the forms and ceremonies of a Court, the uniniti- 
ated observer may be led to draw the conclusion that the 
father and the son were upon the most friendly and affec- 
tionate terms with each other. 

On the Sunday after the arrival of the Duke of York, he 
walked to Carlton House, and returned with the Prince of 
Wales, who stayed at York House more than an hour. He 
then took his leave, but in about two hours returned for the 
purpose Of accompanying the Duchess to Buckingham 
House, whither he went with her in her own carriage, the 
Dukes of York and Clarence following them. On their 
arrival, the Duchess of York was conducted by the Prince 
on his right hand, and the Duke on his left, into the grand 
dining room, in which were seated the King, Queen, and 
six of the Princesses, all of whom rose and advanced into 
the middle of the room to meet the illustrious stranger, who 
dropped on her knees before their Majesties, but was 
instantly raised by the King, who conducted her to a seat 
by the side of the Queen. 

A few days afterwards their Majesties, accompanied by 
the Princesses, paid a visit to York House, and the etiquette 
of the palace was strikingly exemplified on this occasion, 
for the King and Queen never forgot the old school of cere- 
monies, even with their children, on public occasions. After 
reciprocal salutations in the great hall, the royal party were 
led to the lower apartment, fronting the park, where tea 
was served, and the following ceremony observed: The 
Prince of Wales, in the first place, was to attend as lacquey 
on the King, and hand to him the tea, which was first 
brought to the door by the servants, then taken by the ser- 
vants of the Duke's establishment, who handed the trays 
to the Prince of Wales, and His Royal Highness then 
attended upon His Majesty. The Duke of York received 
other tea trays through the same channels, and handed 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 251 

them to the Duchess of York, who was to wait on the 
Queen in the capacity of a servant. This somewhat singular 
custom probably was an importation from the latitude of 
Mecklenburg Strelitz, whence some of the royal family were 
imported. 

On the 23d of November the couple were remarried 
according to the formulce of the Church of England, the 
Prince giving away the bride, and afterwards attesting the 
certificate of the marriage. 

There were several persons at this time forming a kind 
of circle, of which the Prince was the focus, who dreaded 
nothing more than a reconciliation of their patron with his 
illustrious parent, and who, in the event of that circum- 
stance taking place, beheld their own discomfiture, and 
the frustration of all the plans which they had laid for their 
future aggrandizement. A stain has been thrown upon his 
character in regard to his utter desertion of several of his 
intimates, who, perhaps, having been carried into the vortex 
of his extravagrnce, with very slender fortunes to support 
it, were at last reduced to the lowest stage of pauperism, 
and becoming the tenants of a prison. However, the Prince 
granted some very liberal pensions to many of his destitute 
companions, and we have only to mention the late Felix 
McCarthy, a needy Irish adventurer, but a man of infinite 
wit, at the same time destitute of all principle and honor. 
Still he was received at the table of the Prince, to whom 
he was introduced by Lord Moira, who, though certainly 
the steadiest of his friends, was, on account of his improvi- 
dence and his total ignorance of the value of money, a very 
unfit person to be the adviser of the Prince. 

His lordship was continually in debt, and raising money 
upon post obits and other securities at enormous rates. ~H.ii. 
royal companion and friend did the same 5 and the Prince's 
promissory notes to his lordship, and his lordship's promis- 
sory notes to his royal friend, were at any time to be obtained 



252 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

at one quarter of their value.* It was, however, with such 
men as McCarthy, Henry Bate Dudley, alias the Fighting 
Parson, George Hanger, and others of that grade, that the 
Prince lost his character and his money. When the former 
of these worthies was a tenant of the Bang's Bench Prison, 
he was chiefly supported by the bounty of the Prince, who 
used to transmit his grants under an envelope, addressed 
to u The Irish Giant, now exhibiting on the other side of 
the water." The Prince ultimately granted him a pension 
of £200 a year, but which was only paid for two years, on 
account of the intemperate habits of Felix, which brought 
him prematurely to a drunkard's grave. 

It was^peh men as these who had good reason to 
dread reconciliation of the Prince with his father ; for they 
knew it would be the signal for their removal to a different 
sphere of life, and their return to their native haunts of 
insignificance. There are various versions existing of the 
following circumstance, and the precise motive has been 
differently represented, some considering it as the act of a 
deliberate thief, whilst others- looked upon it as a studied 
manoeuvre to put an end to the conversation which was 
then passing between the Prince and his august parent. 

The drawing room which was given in honor of the mar- 
riage of the Duke of York was declared to be unequalled 
for the splendor and number of the visitors. Towards the 
close of it, the King and the Prince were standing in very 
earnest conversation, the crowd around them being very 
great, when on a sudden the Prince felt a most violent pull 
at the handle of his sword. On turning round quickly, he 

* We can state it as a fact that two promissory notes of the Prince, and 
of Lord Moira, for £1,000 each, and an acceptance of the Archbishop o^ 
Canterbury for £500, were offered by a butcher in St. James' Market to a 
notorious discounter of bills, living in Piccadilly, who observed that he had 
never had such a trinity of trash offered to him before. The whole were 
obtained for £250, the Prince's being valued at £150, his Lordship's and hi» 
Grace's at £50 each. 



THE PRIVATE LITE OF A KING. 253 

perceived that the diamond guard was torn off, and hanging 
by the wire, the elasticity of which alone had saved the 
jewels, which amounted in value to between three and four 
thousand pounds. The Prince did not expose the depre- 
dator, for he had some shrewd suspicion on his mind that 
theft was not the object of the individual. It, however, 
excited a considerable degree of sensation ; and if the object 
of the person was the interruption of the discourse, he fully 
succeeded in his design ; for the King and Prince imme- 
diately separated, and never entered into conversation again 
during the remainder of the evening. 

It was at an early period in the session of Parliament, in 
1792, that the establishment of " their Royal Highnesses" 
the Duke and Duchess of York came under consideration; 
and on this occasion the Chancellor of the Exchequer pro- 
posed that the sum of eighteen thousand pounds annually 
should be granted out of the consolidated fund, to be com- 
puted from July 5th, 1791, which, added to the twelve 
thousand already granted to His Royal Highness from the 
civil list, and likewise to the seven thousand which it was 
intended to give him out of the Irish revenue, would render 
the amount of his whole income thirty seven thousand 
pounds per annum. He also proposed that Her Eoyal 
Highness' jointure, upon the contingency of her surviving 
the Duke, should be eight thousand pounds, payable out of 
the consolidated fund. 

The sentiments of the ministry and the leaders of opposi- 
tion seemed perfectly to coincide, except that the latter 
rather wished to go farther, and not only grant the Prince 
an annuity for life, but enable him, by a suitable present, 
to commence, as a married man, with princely splendor. 

Amidst such a contrariety of opinions, Mr. Fox re- 
marked, it was unusual, improper, and undignified for a 
British House of Commons to calculate the expenses when 
called upon to support the splendor of a British Prince. 



254 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

With his accustomed shrewdness of application, he 
exclaimed, u Did gentlemen forget that monarchy was an 
essential part of our constitution? and would they act upon 
the levelling principle of the meanest republic, and sink 
their Princes to the rank of private gentlemen ? If the 
people chose to have the benefit and pageantry of mon- 
archy, it was beneath them to grudge at the necessary 
expense of it." 

The proposition of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, sup- 
ported by Mr. Fox, passed without a division ; so the fortu- 
nate young married couple had the snug sum of £45,000 
(about $225,000) to commence keeping house upon. 

From these scenes of courtly magnificence and splendor, 
we turn to others of a very opposite character, and which 
have a direct tendency to impugn the character, not only 
of the Prince, but of some other branches of the royal 
family, and more especially that of their subordinate 
agents, to whom a stigma attaches, in the catastrophe of 
the following transaction, which no after explanation has 
been sufficient to wipe away. It is not in our power 
exactly to point out the individuals who were the secret 
agents in the tragedy, nor are there any documents in 
existence by which the crime can be brought home to the 
real perpetrators; at the same time we cannot, for a 
moment, entertain the idea that either of the royal Princes 
was privy to the act, but that it was wholly planned and 
matured by men of needy and desperate fortunes, who, 
having no character to lose, were willing to plunge into the 
commission of any crimes by which their circumstances 
might be improved, especially if they had the protecting 
shield of high authorities to conceal them from deteccion. 
In one respect, however, and it is a very important politi- 
cal one, the following transaction will show to what secret 
purposes that most odious of all enactments, the Alien Act, 
was applied ; and whilst it was alleged by the ministers of 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KLNG. 255 

the day that it was introduced solely for the purpose of 
preventing the domiciliation of foreigners in this country, 
who might be the secret agents of Bonaparte, yet that it 
was frequently applied to the removal of persons out of the 
country who were not tainted with any political offence, 
and who, in fact, had visited it with no other view than 
the enforcement of their rightful claims, as creditors, on 
some particular branches of the royal family.* 

We have followed this royal libertine, the Prince of 
Wales, through a career of profligacy and extravagance 
unexampled in any prince of ancient or modern times $ we 
have seen him reduced to the necessity of applying to the 
Parliament of the country for relief from the accumulated 
weight of debt that was pressing so heavily upon him; 
and, under the most solemn promises of reform and amend- 
ment, we have beheld the country liberally coming for- 
ward with the desired relief, and placing the heir apparent 
of the throne in the possession of that income which was 
fully adequate to maintain the dignity and splendor of his 
station. 

The severe lessons, however, which are taught in the 
school of adversity appear, in his case, to have lost all 
their efficacy — their influence was that of the moment — for 
he no sooner found himself extricated from one embarrass- 
ment than he heedlessly rushed into another more deep 
and humiliating than any of the preceding ones. That 
sense of shame, which operates even on ordinary minds, 
formed no part of his moral character — he commenced his 
life as he closed it, vain-glorious, profligate, and extrava- 
gant ; he seemed not to feel nor to understand the duties 
of his station— all his gratifications were selfish — all his 
indulgences sensual. Beal friends he had none; but of 
needy dependants he had a crowd, and " the most finished 
gentleman of Europe" was content to reign over a palace 

*Huish. 



25G THE PRIVATE LIPE OF A KING. 

occupied by none but prostitutes and parasites. Education , 
which corrects and modifies the passions of other nien, 
appeared to have no other tendency than to confirm and 
strengthen his in all their plenitude and force. The moral 
beauty of virtue, emasculated in the festivities of vice and 
the debaucheries of a harem, possessed, in his sight, no 
fixed nor permanent value. Without eyes for pure and 
innocent forms, everything was meretricious about him; 
innocence sunk abashed in his presence, and modesty 
turned from his gaze. The gallery of English beauties was 
the fascination of voluptuousness, and the walls of Carl- 
ton House were u aspic " to every woman's character who 
had the misfortune to attract his notice. 

We doubt not that we shall call down upon our heads 
the bitter animadversions of the monarchists of Europe, 
and especially of the aristocrats of England, who conceive 
that because, " there is a divinity which doth hedge a king," 
it becomes at once an act criminal and unjust to portray 
him as the man, and to hold him up to view with all the 
vices and imperfections by which he was distinguished in 
his career through life. If, to gratify a selfish passion — if, 
to obtain the indulgence of a sensual desire — a prince or a 
monarch had lost sight of the interests of the country, and 
set at defiance every principle of morality and virtue, we 
will not permit our pen, as a true historian, to screen him 
from the merited indignation which naturally arises in the 
breast of the good and virtuous at the infraction of those 
moral duties by which the great chain of human society is 
held together. In the delineation of a royal character, the 
varnish of mystification may suit the parasite and the hire- 
ling ; we will paint it as we have seen and known it, and, 
although the sight of the picture may be repellent to some, 
we shall persevere, unintimidated by threats, to use our 
colors accordingly as the scene present themselves ; and, 
when we give the last finishing touch, it will stand as a 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 257 

portrait for after ages to contemplate with mingled feelings 
of approbation and disgust.* 

In order faithfully to depicture the transaction which 
now comes under our immediate notice, it will be necessary 
to introduce two individuals prominently on the canvass, 
one of whom was the future monarch of the country, Wil- 
liam IY, and the other the Duke of York. Of the latter 
personage, it will be merely requisite to state that, on his 
return to England from his military education in Prussia, 
he brought with him the prevailing vice of the majority of 
the Courts of Germany — that of gambling ; and to his in- 
ordinate attachment to this ruinous propensity may be 
attributed the deep disgrace which he was often obliged to 
endure, as well as the total ruin of his property and for- 
tune. Previously to his marriage, he was little inferior to 
his elder brother in his attachment to the female sex, and 
the expenses which he incurred in some of his establish- 
ments for his mistresses, joined to other pursuits of a still 
more extravagant nature, soon reduced him to such a con- 
dition as actually to have his carriage and horses taken in 
execution in the open streets, and himself obliged to dis- 
mount and return to his residence on foot. In conjunction 
with his royal brothers, the Prince of Wales and the Duke 
of Clarence, every source was tried in this country from 
which such a supply could be raised as would avert the 
storm which was impending over their heads ; but all their 
endeavors failed, and, as the last resource, the Prince of 
Wales was advised to try to raise a loan in Holland, and 
Messrs. Bonney and Sunderland, then of George yard, 
Lombard street, were appointed notarial agents for the 
verification of the bonds ; and the late Mr. Thomas Ham- 
mersley, of Pall Mall, banker, was to receive the subscrip- 
tions and to pay the dividends thereon to the holders, on 
the joint bonds of the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, 

* Huish. 



258 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

and the Duke of Clarence. The sum intended to be raised 
was 3,600,000 guilders, about one million sterling (five mil- 
lion dollars,) the greater part of which, there is every reason 
to believe, was subscribed for by foreign houses only, at a 
price extremely beneficial to the subscribers, provided the 
conditions of the contract had been faithfully kept. 

The negotiation for this loan commenced in 1788 $ but an 
interruption to its final completion was occasioned by the 
death of Mr. Bonney, the notary, and it was ultimately con- 
firmed to the great loss of those who had so rashly specu- 
lated in such a questionable security. The interest of the 
loan was to bear six per cent., and all the revenues and 
appendages of their Royal Highnesses were to be vested in 
the hands of the Dukes of Portland and Northumberland, 
and of other trustees of the first distinction, for the due pay- 
ment of the interest and principal of the loan. The dishon- 
orable part of this transaction now commences: a great 
portion of the money had been received by the Princes — to 
the amount of nearly half a million — and the remainder was 
in the course of payment, when the revolution in France, of 
1792, presented a tempting opportunity to resist the pay- 
ment of those bonds which had been issued, and even the 
interest, which was due, was refused. It happened, how- 
ever, that the revolution drove some of the holders of the 
bonds to England, as an asylum; and numerous applications 
in person, or by the representatives of several of the holders, 
were made to the three Princes for the discharge of, or at 
least for the interest which had become due on, their obliga- 
tions. The chicanery of the law now stepped in, and it was 
pretended by the legal advisers of the Princes that their 
bonds had, by various means, got into hands which were 
not entitled to the interest assigned ; it being alleged that 
the bona fide holders had perished during the troubles in 
France and Holland, and, consequently, that the grantors 
could not be legally bound to admit their claims. On the 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 259 

other hand, it was contended that the bonds, being trans- 
ferable securities, it mattered not into whose hands they 
had fallen, nor was it a question decisive of their validity 
as to the nature or the extent of the consideration which 
had been given for them. It was sufficient to produce them, 
in order to entitle the holders to all the benefits accruing 
from their possession, in the same manner, as if they had 
been the actual subscribers to the loan. In this evasive 
attempt to resist the validity of the bonds, a wound was 
inflicted on the character of the royal Princes, which was 
never afterwards wholly healed. It was considered as a 
base and dishonorable artifice to obtain possession of an 
immense sum on proposed securities, declared and recog- 
nized at first as transferable, but the payment of which was 
to be resisted, on the ground that the existing holders were 
not the original ones, and that the possession of the bonds 
had been obtained by sinister and fraudulent measures. 

The Duke of Clarence appears to have been drawn into 
these transactions, not from any very pressing pecuniary 
exigencies of his own, but from a laudable and generous 
disposition to assist his elder brothers, in extricating them 
from their embarrassments, by offering himself as a collat- 
eral security for the due payment of the bonds. And this 
opinion is, in a great measure, confirmed by the circum- 
stance that, when their father, George III. was informed of 
the negotiations which were going on for the loan, he 
expressed the high sense of his indignation in no measured 
terms at the Duke of Clarence being drawn in to sign the 
bonds, and thereby rendering himself liable to the payment 
of an enormous sum of money, with all its accumulating 
interest, which might eventually reduce him to the condition 
of abject pauperism. The evil was, however, committed 
before the transaction became known to George III, and the 
only question now under consideration was the remedy to 
be applied, in order to avert the ruin which impended over 



260 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

the three elder branches of his family. A compromise was, 
at first, projected with all the bona fide holders of the bonds, 
and that the option should be given to them of receiving at 
once half the amount which had been advanced, in full 
liquidation of the obligations, or to receive the whole at 
such stated periods, and in such sums, as the finances of 
the borrowers could afford. It is most probable that the 
latter proposal would have been immediately accepted by 
the majority of the holders, who had now discovered that 
the security given was not so solid as had been represented 5 
but the legal advisers of the crown again stepped in, and 
recommended a total denial of the validity of the bonds, 
and, consequently, of the responsibility of the grantors. 

In order, however, to try the latter question, an applica- 
tion was made to the Court of Chancery by a Mr. Martignac, 
one of the original bondholders, who offered, as such, to 
verify the security, and the matter came on regularly to be 
heard by way of motion, when Sir Arthur Pigott, who was 
then Attorney General to the Duchy of Cornwall, stated, in 
answer, that he had never heard of the existence of such 
bonds; and that, if such obligations had been contracted, the 
Court must be aware of the difficulties, after the occurrences 
which had taken place in France and Holland, attending 
the identification of the bona fide holders, as well as the lia- 
bility of the grantors, provided such securities should be 
discharged. The immediate impression on his own mind, 
said Sir Arthur, negatived the existence of such bonds, 
although he should feel it to be his duty to make the neces- 
sary inquiries in the proper quarter, and mention the matter 
again in Court, as soon as he had any communication to 
make. 

On the other side, the applicant stated that the bonds 
had not only existed, but were still in existence ; and that 
those to which he was legally entitled were then in his 
possession, and that he appeared there in person to enforce 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 261 

his claim. The motion was then disposed of, with the 
understanding that Sir Arthur Pigott should mention it 
again at as early a day as possible. This, however, Sir 
Arthur neglected to do, and the Court was again moved by 
the claimant, when it appeared, to the astonishment of all, 
that Sir Arthur had entirely forgotten the business. It 
was, however, finally agreed to confer at Chambers on the 
subject, and the matter was no more heard of. 

This conduct of Sir Arthur Pigott constitutes one of not 
the least extraordinary features of this singular transaction, 
and it goes a great way to prove to what shifts and expedi- 
ents a lawyer can have recourse in order to bolster up a 
rotten and indefensible cause. In the first place, with the 
most unblushing effrontery, he declared that he had never 
heard of the existence of the bonds in question 5 and that 
he verily believed no such obligations ever were in exist- 
ence. Can it for a moment be credited that Sir Arthur 
Pigott, the legal adviser of the Prince, could enter the 
Court of Chancery with the ignorance of a fact on his mind 
which was then notorious, not only in this country, but in 
every part of the continent ? The bonds in question were 
then floating in the money market as common as any other 
negotiable security. There was scarcely a broker on the 
Exchange who had. not some of them in his possession to 
dispose of 5 and it was well known that secret agents were 
employed to depreciate their value, in order that they might 
be bought up at the lowest price ; and it was no later than the 
year 1829 that Mr. Charles, of Canterbury, had laid before 
him notarial copies of the whole of the arrangements, bonds, 
etc., verified in Prance by a French notary, upon which 
legal proceedings were threatened, but which were never 
carried into effect, on the ground, it is believed, of a com- 
promise having been entered into with the holders. 

It is not improbable that Sir Arthur Pigott was obliged 
to act up to the instructions given to him, and that the part 



262 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

which he had to perform was one of great difficulty and del- 
icacy. His denial of the existence of the bonds, however, 
tended in a great degree to excite the animosity of the hold- 
ers, and to make them more clamorous for the liquidation 
of their claims. The fact also having transpired of the 
successful issue of the application of Mr. Martignac to the 
Court of Chancery, the applicants considered that the path 
was chalked out to them by which they could be equally 
successful ; and, consequently, a number of holders on the 
continent hastened to this country for the sole purpose of 
enforcing their claims, without investing themselves with 
any political character, or mixing themselves up with either 
of the great contending parties which were then struggling 
in France against the despotism and fanaticism of the Bour- 
bon race. 

At this period, that weak and imbecile minister, Lord 
Sidmouth, held the seals of the Home Department ; and it 
was under his Administration that the odious Alien Act was 
put into its fullest force. The spirit of espionage was car- 
ried to an extent hitherto unknown in England ; and the 
unoffending foreigner, who had sought an asylum on the 
British shores from the troubles which devastated his own 
country, was, on the mere breath of suspicion or some 
anonymous information, taken secretly from his bed, and, 
without knowing the nature of the offence which he had 
given, hurried out of the country, and thrown upon a hos- 
tile shore, into the possession of his most implacable 
enemies, to meet the immediate death of a traitor. As a 
powerful political engine, at a period of anarchy and rebel- 
lion, when kings were fighting for their thrones, and nations 
for their constitutions, the exercise of the Alien Act was 
tolerated under circumstances of an imperious nature. In 
no instance, perhaps, was the severity of the Alien Act car- 
ried to a greater extent than in the case of the holders of 
the bonds of the royal princes. They came to England to 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 263 

enforce a just and long standing claim for moneys which 
they had advanced on the security of the future monarch of 
it, and of his illustrious brothers j and, certainly, it must be 
acknowledged that, if circumstances did not admit of the 
immediate liquidation of those claims, that degree of cour- 
tesy was due to the claimants which is always readily and 
willingly granted from a debtor to his creditor in the most 
ordinary transactions of life. The exact reverse, however, 
was the case with the unfortunate bondholders of the 
princes. Their claim was disputed on the ground that they 
were not the original holders. In vain they argued that 
they had given a bona fide consideration for them, and there- 
fore that their title was unquestionable to all the advan- 
tages which would have resulted to the original holders, in 
whose shoes they considered themselves to be then stand- 
ing. This argument was blinked by the subterfuge that no 
proof had been given of any bona fide consideration having 
been paid j that the revolution in France, and the conse- 
quent troubles in the adjacent countries, had completely 
altered the political relations of England, and had placed 
the responsibility of the grantors of the bonds on a very dif- 
ferent footing than it stood at the time when the security 
was entered into. This, however, was a species of reasoning 
which the bondholders could not, or would not, understand. 
They considered the laws of England to be open to them, 
and to those laws they expressed their determination to ap- 
peal for redress. The temper of the English people was 
not at this period in a state to endure any fresh cause of ex- 
citation, much less one which bore immediately upon the 
extravagance and profligacy of their princes. The French 
were then reading a most powerful lesson to the Bourbon 
princes on the wasteful expenditure of the nation's riches ; 
and it was feared, not without some substantial grounds, 
that the English people might be disposed to read the same 
tesson, in equally expressive terms, to some of their own 



264 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

princes, the catastrophe of which might close in the same 
manner as had been exhibited in France. An immediate 
adjustment of the bonds was certainly the most efficient 
method of stifling the clamor of the claimants 5 but, although 
advisable in one point of view, it was attended in another 
with the greatest danger and embarrassment to the parties 
concerned 5 for, on the return of the claimants to the conti- 
nent, rejoicing in the success of their application, the whole 
host of the holders would tread in the same steps, and re- 
I>air instantly to England to substantiate their claim upon 
the royal princes. In the meantime the claimants then in 
the country showed by their proceedings that the threat of 
an appeal to the laws was not an idle breath ; and it was 
judged necessary and highly politic that an immediate stop 
should be put to them. Accordingly, without a single mo- 
ment's notice, the whole of the claimants were taken up 
under the Alien Act, and being put on board a vessel in the 
Thames, it set sail immediately for Holland 5 but, for a par- 
ticular purpose ^ it cast anchor at the Eore, under pretence 
of waiting for the necessary papers from the Secretary of 
State's office. 

And here begins the gravity of the charge which we 
make against the constituted authorities of England in the 
commission of an act which might have been tolerated 
under the tyranny of a Kero, or the ferocious despotism of 
a Russian autocrat. 

The charge is one dark and dreadful — dark in the secrecy 
and mystery which still hangs over the transaction — dread- 
ful, as it implies the commission of an act which could 
only have been engendered in the head of a fiend, and 
which the hands of fiends could alone have executed. We 
know not on what head to attach the enormity of the crime; 
but, for the sake of the country which could have nurtured 
such a head in its bosom, we should hail an official and 
authentic denial of the fact as the happy removal of a stain 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 265 

upon its national character, which now adheres to it with 
the most obstinate tenacity, extending in its inflictions to 
the very highest quarters, and implicating individuals in 
the estimation of foreign nations, which were heretofore 
accustomed to regard the British character as a compound 
of all that was noble and dignified in human nature. 

It was openly declared in a certain quarter that the act 
was one of mere accident — one of those casualties against 
which no human foresight could prevail. But it is not cus- 
tomary to throw the veil of secrecy and mystery over a 
mere accident ; for where an evident desire of concealment 
is manifested there is generally something more than acci- 
dent or casualty behind. The particulars of the tragical 
catastrophe were known but to few, and it was not the in- 
terest of those few to divulge all they knew upon the sub- 
ject. Bumor, which is generally very busy on occasions of 
this kind 3 obtained but a very partial insight into the 
affair ; but still such a sufficiency was gathered as to 
sanction and confirm the suspicion that accident had very 
little to do in the affair, but that the whole was a deep laid, 
diabolical plan to prevent the unfortunate holders of the 
bonds from giving any further trouble on the score of their 
claims. 

In some cases presumptive evidence is as strong as 
positive proof, and it were natural to presume that the 
crew of the vessel in which the bondholders were embarked 
must have had some very powerful reasons for taking to 
their boat at night, and landing on the nearest shore ; but 
most extraordinary it was that, before they reached it, not 
a vestige of the vessel which they had just left was discern- 
ible above water — it had sunk, and every soul on board * 
perished ! If accident had any share in this catastrophe, it 
must be attributed to a power which distributes the evil 
and the good in this world according to its own wise and 
inscrutable dispensations ; but, if it sprang from premedita- 
12 



266 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

tion and design, on the head of man let the whole weight 
of ignominy rest ; and, when the day of retribution comes, 
the spirits of the victims will rise from the deep, the hour 
of vengeance has arrived, and woe to those on whom its 
weight may fall ! 

We can conjecture the prevailing public opinion of this 
mysterious wreck by the late sinking of the Yirginius, and 
the speculations to which it gave rise in American journals. 

We have had few occasions hitherto to regard the Prince 
of Wales in his political character ; but he was always, as 
is usual with heirs apparent in England, an ostensible 
rallying j)oint of parliamentary opposition to his father's 
Government. His Eoyal Highness, in his professed adher- 
ence to the party out of office, felt conscious of the exercise 
of an independent power, which gained him popularity and 
cost him nothing. Whig doctrines have a smack of liberty 
about them ; they were showy appendages to a prince, and 
wore handsomely in fine weather, when all was calm and 
sunshine 5 but the sunshine did not last forever. The 
French revolution came, and menaced all thrones, and 
royal families, and courtly institutions with destruction. 
The King and his ministers made war upon republican 
institutions as developed in France, on the European side 
of the Atlantic, as they had on the American side of the 
same, where they lost by it, to the great delight of us 
Americans, who were the gainers. 

The Prince does not appear to have taken any active 
part in politics between the day he ceased to encourage the 
Eoxite opposition and that more memorable speech in De- 
cember, 1810, at which, during the insanity of the King, he 
assumed the government of the British realms as Prince 
Regent. 

In 1793 the Duke of York was called into active military 
service in the Netherlands. The Duke of Kent commanded 
a brigade in the attack of Martinique and Gruadaloupe. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 267 

The Duke of Clarence was in the navy. Injustice to the 
Prince of Wales, we must admit that his life of inglorious 
ease was realized by himself, and he intreated the King to 
employ him in some military capacity, and at the time of 
the threatened invasion he addressed him a spirited letter, 
pressing his demands more warmly, but from some cause 
his request was not acceded to $ there must have been some 
powerful hidden motive that influenced the King, for Britain 
needed at that moment every arm that was willing to 
buckle on the armor of defence. Europe was at the foot of 
France, Hanover was lost, Ireland blazing with the fires of 
rebellion, and the whole land threatened with the menaces 
of an invading foe. 

The Prince now spent the greater portion of the few suc- 
ceeding years between Carlton House and Brighton 5 and, 
unfortunately for him, very seldom identified himself with 
the. people, whose future sovereign he was destined to be- 
come. There is, however, one trait in the private character 
of the Prince which deserves to be recorded, and that is 
the warm interest which he took in the personal welfare of 
his menial servants, of which the two following anecdotes 
will bear ample testimony : 

Being at Brighton, and going rather earlier than usual 
to visit his stud, he inquired of a groom, " Where is Tom 
Cross % is he unwell ? I have missed him for some days.' 7 
" Please, your Eoyal Highness, he is gone away." " Gone 
away ! — what for V u Please, your Eoyal Highness (hesi- 
tating) I believe — for — Mr. can inform your Eoyal 

Highness." " I desire to know, sir, of you — what has he 
done F "I believe — your Eoyal Highness — something—- 
not — quite correct — something about the oats." u Where is 

Mr. • "? * send him to me immediately." The Prince 

appeared much disturbed by the discovery. The absent 

one, quite a youth, had been employed in the stable, and 

* A superior of the stable department. 



268 THE PRIVATE LITE OF A KING. 

was the son of an old groom, who had died in the Prince's 
service. The officer of the stable appeared before the 
Prince. " Where is Tom Cross *? what has become of 
him f" " I do not know, yonr Eoyal Highness." " What 
has he been doing f" " Purloining oats, your Royal High- 
ness, and I discharged him." u What, sir! send him away 
without acquainting me ! — not know whither he is gone ! 
a fatherless boy ! driven into the world from my sendee, 
with a blighted character ! Why, the poor fellow will be 

destroyed 5 fie, ! I did not expect this from you ! Seek 

him out, sir, and let me not see you until you have discov- 
ered him." Tom was found, and brought before his royal 
master. He hung down his head, while the tears trickled 
from his eyes. After looking steadfastly at him for some 
moments, " Tom, Tom," said the Prince, " what have you 
been doing ? Happy it is for your poor father that he is 
gone ) it would have broken his heart to see you in such a 
situation. I hope this is your first offence." The youth 
wept bitterly. " Ah, Tom ! I am glad to see that you are 
penitent. Tour father was an honest man ; I had a great re- 
gard for him ; so I should have for you, if you were a good 

lad, for his sake. Now, if I desire Mr. to take you into 

the stable again, think you that I may trust you V Tom 
wept still more vehemently, implored forgiveness, and 
promised reformation. u Well, then," said the gracious 
Prince, " you shall be restored ; avoid evil company. Go, 
and recover your character. Be diligent, be honest, and 
make me your friend $ and — hark ye, Tom — I will take care 
that no one shall ever taunt you with the past." 

At another time, a gentleman, whilst copying a picture 
in one of the state apartments at Carlton House, overheard 
the following conversation between an elderly woman, one 
of the housemaids, then employed in cleaning a stove grate, 
and a journeyman glazier, who was supplying a broken 
pane of glass : " Have you heard how the Prince is to- 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OP A KING. 269 

day V J said he. (His Eoyal Highness had been confined by 
illness.) " Much better," was the reply. " I suppose/ 7 
said the glazier, " you are glad of that V subjoining, 
u though, to be sure, it canH concern you much." u It does 
concern me," replied the housemaid ; u for, though I am only 
a humble menial, I have never been ill but His Eoyal 
Highness has concerned himself about me, and has always 
been pleased, on my resuming my work, to say, 1 1 am glad 
to see you about again j I hope you have been taken good 
care of 5 do not exert yourself too much, lest you be ill 
again. 7 If I did not rejoice at His Eoyal Highness' recov- 
ery — aye, and every one who eats his bread — we should be 
very ungrateful indeed ! ?7# 

It must, however, be admitted, that there will ever be a 
wide distinction between the prince and his people; but 
just in proportion as that barrier to mutual respect and 
confidence is removed will the one rise in reputation, and 
the other manifest a propriety of conduct. When, there- 
fore, the Prince appeared in public, he was either received 
with indifference, or with dislike 5 and the English, who 
possess not the art of concealing their unfriendliness, fre- 
quently developed their feelings in noisy strains of invec- 
tive and reproach. The private conduct of the Prince 
unfortunately tended to increase such sentiments. Although 
his debts had been paid — his establishment increased — his 
income enlarged — his palace completed — yet his creditors 
again became clamorous — his friends continued to be dis- 
tinguished for their immoral habits, and not unfrequently 
the public prints announced adventures and occurrences 
which were as undignified as they were mortifying. 

It requires but a slight knowledge of the human heart, 
and of the principles and motives which operate in the 
formation of character, to enable anyone to perceive that 

* In the latter part of his life he treated his servants with the most incon- 
sistent conceptions of their duties. 



270 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

the previous habits of the Prince of Wales were such as 
naturally to have engendered an aversion to the mar- 
riage state. Such aversion he did not hesitate to reveal, 
and his friends did not endeavor to remove it. For the 
female sex he, indeed, professed admiration the most 
sincere, and friendship the most ardent ; hut a permanent 
attachment, founded on the "basis of mutual affection, was 
wholly incompatible with his character. 

The marriage of the Duke of York, which was anything 
but a happy one, as neither his habits nor his dispositions 
assimilated with those of the Duchess, did not tend to 
remove the objections of the Prioce; and he often dis- 
closed to an intimate friend, afterwards discarded, that he 
would rather forfeit his right to the crown than be plagued 
with a wife. Nor should such feeling in itself excite either 
surprise or animadversion. Habits, when of long duration, 
become princij)les of action ; and how could it be expected 
that he, who had ruled the hearts and persons of some of 
the most beautiful and even accomplished of his country- 
women, could easily bring his mind to enjoy, or even 
endure, the retired and private joys of domestic and matri- 
monial life. To Mrs. Fitzherbert the Prince was really 
attached, although it was well known that during his 
intimacy with that lady he had frequently bent his knee at 
the shrine of other goddesses $ but the latter was a fleeting 
passion, whilst Mrs. Fitzherbert continued to exercise her 
dominion over his passions and judgment, by presenting to 
him, in fearful array, the horrors of a matrimonial connec- 
tion. Yet, after marriage, the conduct of that lady was, 
on the whole, dignified and proper ; and even the Princess 
of Wales herself habitually spoke of her in friendly terms. 
That Mrs. Fitzherbert should be unfriendly to the marriage 
of the Prince is not at all astonishing. Her dignity, her 
fortune, her rank, her happiness, would all, of course, 
naturally suffer by the arrangement $ and, therefore, 



THE PRIVATE LIEE OF A KING. 271 

before she should be censured , it ought to be recollected 
that very few would not have so felt and acted. Nor 
should it be omitted to be recorded, in an impartial narra- 
tive of these events, that that lady, after the marriage had 
taken place, though disappointed and chagrined by the 
circumstance, did not endeavor longer to exercise her 
influence over her previous acquaintance ; and that, 
although the connection between her and the Prince was 
subsequently reviewed, it was by his desire, and not at her 
request. 

The King now became still more desirous than formerly 
for the marriage of the Prince of Wales. The Duke of 
York had no issue by his marriage, and it was considered 
by the royal family and the physicians of the Duchess, from 
certain causes, that issue was not to be expected. The 
King was advancing in years — the Prince was then thirty- 
two — and state policy suggested to his Majesty the pro- 
priety of providing for the succession. 

Unhappily for the Prince, for the royal family, and for 
the nation, the pecuniary embarrassments of the Prince of 
Wales at this time compelled him to apply to his father 
and to Mr. Pitt for further assistance. The former recom- 
mended marriage, and the latter did not offer to it any ob- 
jections. His Majesty had made it a matter of public con- 
versation and correspondence ; and in two letters to his 
sister, the Duchess of Brunswick, he had pointedly adverted 
to the subject. It appears to be indisputable that the 
Duchess had in consequence conceived some hopes that her 
daughter might be selected as the consort of the future King 
of England j and she actually expressed them to that effect 
to a lady of her Court. Still she entertained some appre- 
hension that her brother might object to an alliance 
between individuals so nearly related, and who had not 
possessed any opportunities of obtaining a personal ac- 
quaintanceship. 



272 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

We ruay, perhaps, be accused of travelling out of the 
record, in expressing our objection to these close and, we may 
add, unnatural alliances in princely families, which may be 
considered as the acting cause of that fatuity which the 
most superficial observer must allow has, in all ages, been 
the disease of hereditary royalty and of ancient dynasty. 
This is a truth, of such magnitude and importance, that to 
the interests of political philosophy its discussion is due, 
unfettered by all temporal and trivial considerations. If 
the fact be doubted, we may point out to them the cases of 
the Emperor Paul of Russia, the late sovereigns of Dem 
mark and Portugal, the present deposed King of Sweden, 
the late King of Naples, George III of England, Queen 
Yictoria, etc. — a fourth or a fifth of the Kings then occu- 
pying the thrones of Europe — and consequently a propor- 
tion of mental disease infinitely greater than can be exem- 
plified in any other rank of society. The marriage of the 
Prince of Wales with the daughter of his father's sister 
approached very closely to incest j* and this has generally 
been the practice of all princely families in their marriages, 
having usually intermarried only with persons of simi- 
lar rank, of similarly depraved education, of similarly de- 
generated intellectual and physiognomical character. The 
royal family of Spain is more remarkable than any other 
for intermarriages between parties so closely allied as to be 
almost incestuous ; and, accordingly, the ultimate result of 
these infamies has been the production of a sort of unnat- 
ural toeing — of Ferdinand, the monster. 

To return from this short digression. In the year 1794 
the Duke of York took the command of the British army 
in Germany, in the war which was then prosecuting against 

* Huish, speaking of the once proposed marriage of the Princess Victoria, 
the present Queen of England, says, " The stock of royal imbecility on hand 
is already sufficiently large, without incurring any further risk of increasing 
it." Vol. 1, page 324. 



THE PRIVATE LEFE OF A KING. 273 

the French republic. During this unfortunate campaign 
the Duke of York became acquainted with his uncle the 
Duke of Brunswick, and to his Court and family he was 
introduced. Such introduction was unhappily the means 
of that subsequent alliance. The accomplishments and 
personal charms of the Princess Caroline made impressions 
of the most favorable nature on the mind of the Duke of 
York, and those feelings he communicated to the Prince 
and to his father, the King. 

The preliminary objection which the Prince had invari- 
ably made when marriage was recommended to him now 
appeared to the King to be removed, and he requested the 
former to be united to the Princess. The requisition was 
made at a time when the resources of the Prince were espe- 
cially exhausted — when his creditors became importunate — 
when it became necessary to discharge some debts of honor, 
and when, therefore, the prospect of relief, even at any 
sacrifice, was desirable. The portrait of the Princess of 
Brunswick, which had been shown to the Prince, repre- 
sented a lady of by no means a disagreeable appearance, 
and tha promise of the King in writing, that, on the mar- 
riage of the Prince, his debts should be discharged, his 
income increased, and the favor of his father augmented 
and secured, additionally operated on his mind in favor of 
the connection. He consulted with Mr. Fox and Mr. Sheri- 
dan $ the former advised acquiescence, and the latter was 
less averse from the alteration. The Prince ultimately con- 
sented, and the negotiations for the marriage com- 
menced. 

Those who knew little of the Prince's character, and who 
discredited as calumnies the current rumors respecting his 
life, were eager for this earnest of a second example of 
domestic regularity and concord in the royal family of Eng- 
land, and asked each other who was to be the fortunate 
object of his affections ? Those, however, who knew better, 

12* 



274 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

asked who was to be the victim of his necessities f and her 
name was in due time announced. 

This match, however, was not one of choice on either 
side 5 for Her Serene Highness was already in love, and had 
fixed her affections on a German Prince whom she could 
not marry. Thus interest, indifference, and second love 
held out but an unpropitious prospect for the royal pair. 
The Princess did not withhold her consent, although she 
had heard of the follies of the Prince, she had also heard 
of his virtues, and his generosity and sensibility had been 
greatly extolled. Yet, for reasons just stated, the Princess 
neither did, nor could, love her future husband. The pre- 
cise state of her mind cannot be better stated than in the 
unguarded frankness of one of her letters to a friend, dated 
November 28, 1794 : 

" You are aware, my friend, of my destiny. I am about entering into a 
matrimonial alliance with my first cousin, George, Prince of Wales. His 
generosity I regard, and his letters bespeak a mind well cultivated and refined. 
My uncle is a good man, and I love him very much, but I feel that I shall 
never be inexpressibly happy. Estranged from my connections, my associ- 
ates, my friends — all that I hold dear and valuable — I am about entering on 
a permanent connection. I fear for the consequences. Yet I esteem and 
respect my intended husband, and I hope for great kindness and attention. 
But, ah me ! I say sometimes I cannot now love him with ardor. I am indif- 
ferent to my marriage, but not averse to it ; I think I shall be happy, but 
I fear my joy will not be enthusiastic. The man of my choice I am debarred 
from possessing, and I resign myself to my destiny. I am attentively study- 
ing the English language ; I am acquainted with it, but I wish to speak it 
with fluency. I shall strive to render my husband happy, and to interest 
him in my favor, since the Fates will have it that I am to be Princess of 
Wales." 

This letter, in German, was addressed to one of the Prin- 
cess's countrywomen resident in England. It has a tone of 
sentiment and romance which is truly painful. 

The first intimation of the intended marriage was con- 
veyed to the public in the speech of the King, delivered on 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 275 

the 30th of December, 1794, to both Horrses of Parliament, 
in which he expressed himself in the following manner: 

" I have the greatest satisfaction in announcing to you 
the happy event of the conclusion of a treaty of marriage 
with the Princess Caroline, daughter of the Duke of Bruns- 
wick. The constant proofs of your aifection for my person 
and family persuade me that you will participate in the 
sentiments I feel on an occasion so interesting to my domes- 
tic happiness; and that you will enable me to make provi- 
sion for such an establishment as you may think suitable 
to the rank and dignity of the heir apparent to the crown 
of these kingdoms." 

The address of the Commons to His Majesty was, as* 
usual, a mere echo of the speech, exi>ressmg also their high 
satisfaction at the proposed marriage, and their extreme 
readiness and cheerfulness to vote away a large sum of the 
people's money for the support and maintenance of the rank 
and dignity of the royal Prince. 

On the 30th of December, 1794, the Princess Caroline left 
the Court of Brunswick, attended by her mother and a 
retinue splendid and numerous. The acclamations of the 
populace followed her for several miles on her route; and 
those to whom she had manifested any kindness prayed to 
the God of Charity for His blessing on the union. During 
the period that elapsed from the time of her leaving Bruns- 
wick to that of quitting Cuxhaven, she studied the English 
language, made many inquiries as to English manners and 
customs, and appeared particularly anxious to be perfectly 
acquainted with the genius and character of the nation over 
whom she might one day be called to reign. 

The eyes of the whole English nation were now directed 
to the arrival of the Princess of Brunswick; congratulatory 
addresses were prepared, and the powers of poetry were 
invoked to hail her arrival on British land. At length, on 
the 28th of March, 1795, she embarked in the Jupiter, Com- 



276 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

modore Payne. She was accompanied by Mrs. Harcourt 
and Lord Mahnesbury, and also by Mrs. Aston and Mrs. 
St. Leger, who had been sent for that purpose expressly by 
the Prince of Wales. Lady Jersey had also received 
instructions to embark from Eochester 5 but she returned 
to London with the excuse of being indisposed, and stated 
her inability to proceed. 

We must here be allowed to call the attention of our 
readers to the following interesting facts concerning the 
treacherous and infamous conduct of Lady Jersey through- 
out the whole of the circumstances connected with the mar- 
riage of the Prince of Wales. The following pages of indi- 
vidual history will be perused with pain and regret by 
everyone whose mind is rightly constituted, and whose heart 
is not incapable of noble and generous sympathy. They will 
carry with them the development of actual, positive misery, 
and one continued narrative of sorrow and suffering. What* 
ever might be the cause of such evils, their existence cannot 
be disputed ; and that very reality must, therefore, excite 
pity and regret. 

The whole of this affair is intensely interesting, and car- 
ries with it reflections of the most momentous import. That 
the heir apparent to the throne of a free country should be 
compelled, against his inclinations, to unite his destiny with 
an individual whom lie did not love is a circumstance which 
the statesman, the moralist, and the philanthropist must 
deplore ; and that the daughter, whose love and affections 
were already engaged, should also be induced to consent to 
a union to which she was averse, is equally lamentable. 
Against such arrangements of national policy many objec- 
tions to their theory might be urged 5 but the history of this 
marriage is so replete with proofs of their baneful operation 
that theory is superseded by fact, and supposition by 
demonstration. To all nations and to all Governments it 
must read a lesson which should never be forgotten, and 



-v jv^fc? "•- 




CAROLINE, WIPE OF GEORGE IT " BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 277 

which should not only be deplored, but should induce a 
universal determination to repeal or discontinue all laws 
and customs, however sanctioned by experience or venera- 
ble for antiquity, which are the real causes of evils so dire, 
and, unhappily, as frequent as they are distressing. 

It was on the 4th of April, 1795, that the Jupiter, having 
on fooard the Princess Caroline, anchored off Gravesend ; 
and on the following morning she went on board one of the 
royal yachts, and about twelve o'clock landed at Greenwich 
Hospital. The Princess was received by Sir Hugh Palliser, 
the governor, who conducted her to his house ; but Lady 
Jersey did not arrive there till an hour after the Princess 
had landed. They both soon after retired into an adjoining 
room, and the dress of the Princess was changed for one 
which was brought from town by Lady Jersey. 

Her stay at Greenwich was very short, as she departed, 
immediately after dressing, for town, in the same coach with 
Mrs. Harcourt and Lady Jersey, and arrived at St. James 7 
a little before three o'clock. She was immediately intro- 
duced into the apartments prepared for her reception. On 
her entering the palace the Prince appeared agitated, but, 
on being introduced to her, he immediately saluted her. 
The King was particularly affable and kind to his intended 
daughter-in-law, but the Queen met her with the most 
repulsive coldness, made but few inquiries, and manifested 
feelings much opposed in character to those of the King. 
The Prince was not only polite and affable to the Princess, 
but he paid her many compliments, expressed his happi- 
ness and confidence in the prospect of an union with her; 
and his surprise at the fluency with which she conversed in 
English. At eleven o'clock the Prince retired, and the 
Princess was then left under the care of Mrs. Aston. 

Lady Jersey, who had been present during the greatest 
part of the interview, and who had appeared displeased by 
the attentions which the Prince had paid to his destined 



278 THE PRIVATE LIFE OP A KING-. 

wife, now also retired, determined to avail herself of the 
period which would elapse prior to a second interview 
between the illustrious personages, to represent to the 
Prince, in false and unmerited language, the character of 
her royal mistress. To Lady Jersey, the Princess of 
Brunswick had certainly most incautiously and unwarily 
stated her attachment to a German prince ; and Lady Jersey 
stated that the Princess said, u she was persuaded that she 
loved one little finger of that individual far better than she 
should love the whole person of the Prince." The accuracy 
of this statement, to its full extent, was subsequently 
denied by the Princess of Brunswick $ but still she admit- 
ted that she had imprudently referred to a former attach- 
ment. Lady Jersey, on the succeeding day, apprised the 
Prince of that attachment, assured him that his intended 
consort had made the above declaration— found fault with 
her person — ridiculed the coarseness of her manners — pre- 
dicted that the marriage, if consummated, would be unfor- 
tunate, and inveighed against the King for promoting the 
intended union. A great part of this statement was sub- 
sequently admitted by Lady Jersey, and what was not so 
admitted was stated by the Princess, on the highest 
authority, to have taken place. 

The effects of the machinations of this female fiend were 
immediate and baneful, for, on the following day, when the 
Prince of Wales visited St. James', he was distant and 
reserved in his manners, and manifested, if not a decided 
aversion for the Princess of Brunswick, at least such a 
marked alteration in his conduct, that it was observed by 
all present, and augured little for the happiness of the 
intended union. Charlotte has been accused of having 
been the individual who effected, or contributed to effect, 
such alteration; but the charge is without foundation. 
The malicious and artful Lady Jersey was the principal, if 
not the sole, cause. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 279 

At length the clay arrived when the nuptials were to be 
solemnized, and on the evening of April the 8th, 1795, the 
marriage took place. It was celebrated at the Royal 
Chapel, St. James', and the ceremony was splendid and 
imposing. To enter into a full detail of the whole ceremo- 
nial is unnecessary, as it has been fully described in the 
"Memoirs of Queen Caroline ; " * but it may not be deemed 
irrelevant to show how much the King was interested in 
the match, which was sufficiently manifested by several 
minute circumstances connected with the ceremonial of the 
day. The whole of the royal family having dined together 
at the Queen's Palace, it was necessary afterwards for them 
to proceed to St. James', to their respective apartments, 
to dress ; and, on leaving Buckingham House, the King 
kissed the Princess in the hall, and, in the fulness of his 
heart, shook the Prince of Wales by the hand, till mutual 
tears started from the eyes of father and son. When the 
service was performing, and the Archbishop of Canterbury 
asked, " Who gives the bride in marriage f the King 
instantly and eagerly advanced to the Princess, and taking 
her with both his hands, presented her with expressive 
marks of satisfaction. 

The indifference of the Prince was indeed a chilling con- 
trast with this parental warmth. The bride was unseem- 
ingly dejected, and the Prince, at the commencement, bore 
his compulsory fate with A^ery little grace j he, however, 
bethought him of " the sweet little courtesies," and before 
the ceremony concluded, assumed the gallantry of a gen- 
tleman, and paid the most polite attention to the bride and 
bridesmaids. This was but the sunshine of ceremony. 
Only on one occasion did the King reprove him, and that, 
when the Prince impatiently rose too soon from his kneel- 
ing position. The Archbishop of Canterbury paused, 

* Huish. 



280 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

when the King rose from his seat, and whispered to the 
Prince, who kneeled again, and the service concluded. 

After the ceremonial their Majesties held a drawing 
room, which was numerously and brilliantly attended j 
and, on its close, the whole of the royal family returned 
to the Queen's palace to sup quite in a domestic style, 
and the newly married pair retired to Carlton House at 
midnight. 

The celebration of this splendid ceremony was hailed by 
all ranks and orders of people with the utmost enthusiasm. 
The thundering expressions of delight by the cannon in 
the Park and at the Tower were answered by the acclama- 
tions of the populace, the ringing of bells, by the display of 
flags, by the flashing of a million tapers, fantastically shin- 
ing in all shapes and dimensions, and illuminating the 
whole of the metropolis. The sympathetic feeling extended 
itself, with the rapidity of lightning, to the remotest parts 
of the empire, and produced the most enthusiastic effusions 
of loyalty and j oy . 

From these public demonstrations of happiness we turn 
to private ones of a very different character. We would 
gladly forbear to touch any further on the fate of the most 
illused of the Brunswick race, and with one exception, 
Matilda of Denmark, the most unhappy $ but we dare not 
avoid the subject, although now to dwell upon it would ex- 
cite feelings which may be let sleep without the sacrifice of 
any paramount duty. 

It is very probable that the Princess of Wales would 
not, under any circumstances, have made her husband a 
fit member of the marriage state. To supply that absent 
grace to his character, she must have reclaimed him ; and 
the wife who would reclaim a libertine must begin by 
awakening his affections. But the affections of the Prince! 
where were they ? of what nature ? by what engaged, or by 
whom ? His passions were known, alas ! to be far otherwise 




THE NUPTIAL CHAMBER. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 281 

excited. His pity might have been touched ; but, if Caro- 
line of Brunswick herself could feel that sentiment, she dis- 
dained to sue for it. 

If Lady Jersey had not, with a perfidy only equalled by 
her hardihood, stepped forward to prevent the possibility 
of happiness to the illustrious individuals, although they 
might not ever be models of conjugal attachment, yet it is 
more than probable that, at least, in comparative peace 
and harmony the Prince and Princess would have passed 
their days. It is, indeed, admitted that the Princess was 
not in a state of mind most favorable to marriage ; and it 
is not less certain that the feelings and situaton of the 
Prince were not more adapted to his projected union ; but 
just in the same proportion as they were mutually unpre- 
pared and unfitted, so was that malice, which, by treach- 
ery and by falsehood, conspired to render the happiness 
consequent on that union not merely problematical, but 
impossible. 

To that period, and to such conduct, then, may be traced 
the subsequent dissatisfaction and misery which resulted 
from this marriage, and which tended to involve the parties, 
the royal family, and the nation, in feuds which have not 
yet wholly subsided, and which, have been attended with, 
evils which will ever remain as blots on the pages of Eng- 
lish history, and as rallying points for party spleen and 
political rancor. 

Let it, however, be remembered that to the imprudence, 
the unjustifiable ingenuousness, and the love of independ- 
ence of the Princess, may be partially attributed the 
evils which ensued $ since, to Lady Jersey, who was to 
her a stranger, a foreigner, and an inferior, she should 
not have betrayed feelings which she ought to have con- 
cealed from everyone ; and thus roused into action the 
dormant evil passions and principles of that celebrated 
traducer. 



282 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

Let us, however, follow the injured female to the home 
of her splendid misery. Her reception in her husband's 
house was a stain to manhood : a fashionable strumpet 
usurped the apartments of the Princess — her rights, the 
honors which were due to her — everything but the name 
she bore, and the bonds which galled and disgraced her. 
The master of the mansion felt not his own dignity insulted, 
when the half drunken menials made their royal mistress 
the subject of their gross ribaldry or spiteful abuse. She 
complained to her parent, her letters were intercepted, and 
the seals violated. The offence of her misery was unmerci- 
fully punished. She became a wanderer over the earth — 
she sought, after many years, a home in England, the 
birthplace, and once the expected kingdom, of her only 
child. Unsated malice, vengeance, perjury, and persecu- 
tion followed her — she grappled with, strangled them, and 
bravely perished. 

We are aware that in the foregoing passage we have, as 
it-were, been anticipating the march of our history, and in 
a few lines have embraced the leading points of the melan- 
choly fate of Caroline of Brunswick. But the whole pic- 
ture, with all its dark and gloomy shades, presented itself 
at once to our view ; we have given a faint transcript, but 
the original, with all its horrors, will be remembered as long 
as England fills a place in the nations of the world. 

We have previously shown that the Princess of Bruns- 
wick was not selected by the Prince, but by his father for 
him, and that the King refused to recommend the payment 
of the debts of his son unless he consented to be married to 
the Princess of Brunswick. Yet he did consent, and, 
having consented, he should have felt bound by the 
arrangement, and it may with propriety be asked what 
should have been the conduct of each of the distinguished 
personages under such circumstances ? As a woman and 
a wife, the Princess should have been courteous, kind, 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KIN(x. 283 

respectful, attentive, and submissive. She should not have 
expected that ardor of affection, and that care and assidu- 
ous attention, which she would have had a right to expect 
if the Prince had professed to love her, and if she had loved 
the Prince. Her rank, her character, her accomplishments, 
her family, her relationship to the reigning monarch and to 
the heir apparent, ought, however, to have obtained for 
her the public and private respect, confidence, and society 
of the Prince. These, however, she did not obtain, for 
others, far less deserving, studied to supplant her, and they 
succeeded. 

As to the Prince, his situation was even more peculiar. 
He consummated a marriage without sufficiently reflecting 
on the consequences. He forgot that Lady Jersey and 
Mrs. Fitzherbert must be wholly reliuquished for a Princess 
whom he did not love, though he had made her his bride. 
But he speedily discovered his error, and that was the 
moment of difficulty. Every artifice that female jealousy 
could invent was set in motion to ruin the Princess in the 
eyes of her husband, and every day added to the aversion 
which he felt for her. 

That the Prince soon testified a disposition to retract his 
promises was evident to all who had the opportunity of 
witnessing the cabals of Carlton House ; and the ascen- 
dancy which Lady Jersey held over his actions soon involved 
him in the most perplexing embarrassments. That he did 
not feel the slightest delicacy for the situation in which he 
was placed as a married man was alleged Iby the Princess 
herself, who declared that George III had disclosed to her 
that the Duke of Gloucester, in a conversation, positively 
stated that an arrangement was made with Lord Carlisle 
to give up Lady Jersey to the Prince 5 that this was agreed 
to at Rochester, when Lady Jersey first set out to meet the 
Princess, and that there was an understanding that she 
should always be the object of his affections. The history 



284 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

of the Prince and Princess, for the next few years, demon- 
strates the connection which subsisted between the former 
and Lady Jersey. 

If this arrangement really did take place, then the sub- 
sequent conduct of Lady Jersey can be more easily accounted 
for, and her familiarity with the Prince appears yet more 
objectionable and improper. If it did not take place, then 
how unaccountable is the conduct of Lady Jersey in ven- 
turing to step forward and intrude on the ears of a Prince 
falsehoods which would tend to create permanent distrust 
and want of affection on the part of the Prince for his con- 
sort, when by such result Lady Jersey could not exj)ect 
to derive any advantage. The inference, therefore, must 
be this, that the arrangement referred to icas made, and 
that the intercourse of Lady Jersey was as interested and 
sordid as it was malicious. 

The marriage of the Prince and Princess had not occurred 
many days, when the latter was informed that Lady Jersey 
had been on terms of intimacy with the Prince — that she 
had endeavored to poison his mind against her by false 
and injurious statements — and " that Lady Jersey was the 
real wife, and the Princess only the nominal one." Every 
day demonstrated to her that such information was correct, 
and she avowed to the Prince the dislike she entertained 
to her ladyship. That avowal he received with consider- 
able displeasure, and professed for the individual the most 
sincere friendship. But a few words of mutual explana- 
tion at that time reconciled the difference. 

At length the conduct of Lady Jersey became more 
marked — she did not conceal her aversion from the Prin- 
cess — she endeavored as much as possible to obtain the 
private society of the Prince ; and discord and misery ap- 
peared fast approaching. The first quarrel which occurred 
between these illustrious individuals took place one day 
when, on conversing on the subject, she declared her inten- 



THE PRIVATE LIEE OF A KING. 285 

tion of refusing to dine with Lady Jersey when the Prince 
was not present, and also at any time to converse with her. 
The Prince insisted on a different line of conduct. He re- 
quired her to treat Lady Jersey " as a friend" — to dine with 
her at all times — and to converse with her as with the 
rest of her ladies. She refused so to act, and in language 
fervent, and in an animated tone, inveighed against the 
character of Lady Jersey, and required her dismissal. The 
Prince, on his part, refused to accede to the wishes of the 
Princess, and he left her for some time at Carlton House, 
angry at her refusal and her conduct. But who can cen- 
sure the Princess for refusing the society and the conversa- 
tion of a woman who was her greatest enemy, and who had 
endeavored to effect her misery and ruin ? 

To the King the Princess now applied — she explained to 
him the cause of her unhappiness and the conduct of Lady 
Jersey — and she represented her situation as a solitary, tra- 
duced, and miserable woman, aggravated especially by her 
delicate situation. The King interfered — effected a recon- 
ciliation — and prevailed on the Prince to give up Lady 
Jersey, and direct that she should no more come into wait- 
ing. Part of that engagement was fulfilled ; but to Lady 
Jersey the Prince was too much attached wholly to aban- 
don her. The marriage bed, which had been forsaken dur- 
ing the absence of the Prince, was now, however, left no 
longer $ and hopes were cherished by the King that hap- 
piness might be restored. 

On receiving the communication of their mutual unhap- 
piness, the King was much concerned, and evinced his grief 
by conduct the most prompt and energetic, yet Mud and 
affectionate. In addition to these troubles, he had been, 
?m1 continued to be, greatly harassed by the question of 
tlie Prince of Wales' debts, which had been brought before 
Parliament ; and this proceeding had given great uneasi- 
ness to the mind of the Princess. Scarcely had the mar- 



286 THE PRIVATE E1FE OF A KING. 

riage been consummated when the subject was agitated 
throughout the country, and the union was publicly des- 
ignated as " unwise, impolitic, absurd, and ruinous.' 7 The 
character of her husband she saw aspersed in the public 
journals, and his friends and associates designated by epi- 
thets as wounding to her pride as they were unnecessary 
and unkind. 

As one of the conditions of the Prince's marriage was 
that he should be exonerated from the pecuniary embar- 
rassments under which he labored, a message from the 
King was delivered to both Houses of Parliament, on ac- 
count of the debts of the Prince of Wales, on the 27th of 
April. The message stated the reliance of His Majesty 
upon their generosity, for enabling him to settle an estab- 
lishment upon the Prince and his august bride suited to 
their rank and dignity, declaring his readiness to concur in 
any plan for establishing a regular arrangement in the 
future expenditure of the Prince, and of guarding against 
the possibility of his being again involved. It will be re- 
membered that this was at a time of great national embar- 
rassment 5 the people were discontented ; there were vari- 
ous pamphlets issued from the press, denouncing the Prince 
in unmeasured terms. But these libels were not noticed 
by the Administration. There could scarcely have been a 
more unpropitious season for the contemplation of any 
increase to the expense of maintaining appendages of 
royalty. 

The terrible excesses of the French revolution were recent 
in the recollections of everyone, and it was the policy of 
the opponents of the Prince to make the people believe that 
the disasters to royalty in France were the legitimate con- 
sequence of the prodigality of the French princes, and, as 
there was some foundation for this accusation of cause and 
and effect, it found a general acceptance. In the crisis of 
the affairs of any Government there are always discontented 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 287 

persons and agitators, who, for the furtherance of their 
own ends, desire a change of Government. Republics even 
are not exempt from such manifestations, as has been fre- 
quently illustrated in the history of our own land. That 
the public mind was considerably influenced by this class 
at the time alluded to cannot be questioned. 

The further consideration of the Prince's debts, and the 
provision for expenses attendant upon his marriage with 
the Princess, were brought before the House of Commons. 
Mr. Pitt made an animated appeal in behalf of supporting 
the " dignity and splendor of the royal family," and pro- 
posed that the income of the Prince should be £65,000 per 
annum (more than double the previous grant,) exclusive 
of the Cornwall Duchy revenues ; the preparations for the 
marriage to be $150,000 for jewels and plate, and $125,000 
for refurnishing Carlton House ; the jointure of the Princess 
to be $250,000 per annum. The debts of the Prince were 
stated by the minister to be $1,150,000, and in liquidation 
of these he moved that $125,000 a year be set apart, and, in 
case of his death, that amount be charged annually upon 
the succession. 

Mr. Grey (afterwards Earl) opposed the motion of Mr. 
Pitt, upon the popular grounds that the community were 
suffering great privations, and that the Prince, having in- 
curred such enormous debts, ought not, at a period of 
depression, have recourse to the public purse for assistance, 
but make such reduction in his expenses as would enable 
him to discharge the claims of his creditors. Mr. Grey, in 
conclusion, moved an amendment to Mr. Pitt's proposition, 
that the Prince should only have an increase of $200,000 to 
his income already granted, instead of $325,000, which the 
minister proposed. 

Mr. Fox followed in a luminous speech, in which he took 
occasion to state that, while it was necessary to support the 
dignity of the Crown as an essential of the constitution, he 



288 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

did not regard the establishment of former Princes of 
Wales as the most creditable part of the history of the 
house of Brunswick; the establishment of George II, 
when Prince of Wales, had been a mere matter of 
party, and still more that of his son Frederick, Prince of 
Wales, whose grants were $300,000 a year when he hap- 
pened to differ from the King's ministers, and $500,000 
when lie agreed with them. Mr. Fox delicately alluded to the 
suspicious circumstances in which such a transaction placed 
that Prince, hoping the House would avoid such conduct as 
might expose the Prince of Wales to similar suspicious.* 
He blamed the scantiness of the former income granted to 
the Prinoe, exonerating himself for having concurred in it 
on the ground of its having been an experiment. 

After some further observations by Mr. Fox, the House 
proceeded to act upon Mr. Grey's amendment, when the 
members for it were 99; against it, 260. For repairing 
Carlton House, the division stood, 248 for it ; against it, 99. 

The debates in the House of Commons excited a sensa- 
tion in the outside world which was artfully kept alive by 
jrablications and newspaper paragraphs. At this stage of 
the proceedings, the Attorney General of the Prince, Mr. 
Anstruther, made a communication to the House on behalf 
of the Prince, who expressed a willingness to acquiesce in 
such measures as the wisdom of Parliament might adopt 
for the regulation of his establishment and the payment of 
his debts. 

Mr. Pitt upon this congratulated the House upon the 
constitutional sentiments which the Prince had expressed, 
and moved that another committee should be appointed to 
bring in a bill relative to a general regulation of the 

* A particular account of this intrigue, not very favorable to the character 
of Prince Frederick or of his political advisers, may be found in the Memoirs 
of Bubb Doddington (Lord Melcombe,) who entered largely into the cabals of 
his day. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 289 

expenditures of the Prince, and the appropriation for the 
discharge of his debts. 

The substance of the arguments of those who opposed 
Mr. Pitt's motion may be inferred from the speech of Mr. 
Buncombe, of York, who stated that he was one of those 
who on a former day had voted for the smaller aug- 
mentation of the Prince's income. "At a time," said 
this gentleman, " when the comforts and conveniences of 
life are wanting to the middle classes of society, when the 
poor are scarcely supplied with even common necessaries, 
and when the prospects of a dearth (the prospects of the 
harvest of 1795 were very unpromising) becomes every day 
more alarming, I cannot listen to the idle claims of splendor 
and magnificence ; I trust that at such a season the feelings of 
His Eoyal Highness will dispose him rather to sympathize 
with the distress of the lower orders, and to sacrifice some- 
thing for their relief, than to form selfish and extravagant 
pretensions. In these distempered times, let us* beware 
how, by an unnecessary or wanton profusion of the public 
money, we furnish the favorers of wild and dangerous 
innovations with a color and plausibility for their argu- 
ments. I do not mean to say that the debts ought not to 
be paid, but I look to other resources for that purpose. I 
look first to the justice of His Eoyal Highness to make pro- 
vision for the payment of those debts that shall be proven 
to be just ; many of them, I apprehend, do not come under 
that description.' 7 

One of the most eloquent speeches delivered at this most 
interesting period was that of Sheridan, and, of course, in 
the interest of the Prince. Sheridan himself was an incor- 
rigible spenthriffc: 

" A fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind," 

and there was no man better calculated to make an elo- 
quent apologist for the excesses of the Prince. It will be 

13 



290 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 



remembered that Sheridan was charged with being one of 
the evil advisers of the Prince, and of being a prime agent 
in producing his embarrassments. The Duke of Clarence 
and Lord Loughborough also spoke ably in behalf of the 
Prince, which were the last of any importance upon the 
debate, and shortly after (Tune 26th, 1795) the bill received 
the royal assent by commission. 




CATHBINa FOK THE PBENTCE. 



THE PBIVATE LITE OF A KING. 29 



(Statrtw (Bx$M. 



When the projected marriage of the Prince t& Caroline 
of Brunswick was made known, the influence of the press 
was demonstrated to a remarkable extent. Pamphlets 
were scattered broadcast throughout the land, and had 
immense weight with the people, to whom many misde- 
meanors of the Prince were previously unknown. Com- 
pared to their present advanced stage, the arts connected 
with j)rinting and journalism were in their infancy in this 
country, and the existence of the American press was 
scarcely acknowledged across the Atlantic ; now every 
enterprise associated with the dissemination of intelligence, 
from the electric flash, which every moment 

"Puts a girdle round the earth," 

to the minutest detail of the cunning mechanism of the 
printing press, is traced to American inventive skill and 
genius. 

We shall have occasion to quote from the European cor- 
respondence of several American newspapers, not as evi- 
dences of editorial research, but as having reference to 
arguments advanced in various portions of our work. 
Since the publication of the "G-reville Memoirs," some 
Americans have expressed satisfaction for their Republican 
birth, when royalty and nobility is made to form so pitiful 
a figure 5 possibly there are politicians at Washington, in 
poor repute, who will derive a certain satisfaction in the 
contemplation of this picture of their brethren beyond the 
seas: 



292 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING-. 

"A seat in the House of Lords means political extinction, and confers 
no social advantages. Since Mr. Pitt inaugurated the practice of selling 
coronets to pawnbrokers and money lenders, every successive Premier has 
followed it, and the peerage is no longer a school of honor nor of manners. 
Loutish lords, who have neither education nor importance, abound ; and these 
are peers who are money lenders : the decoy ducks of bubble companies, 
sharpers at cards, welchers on the turf, horse dealers, hotel keepers, partners 
in obscure gaming houses, and peers so poor that they are glad to take the 
leavings of another man's dinner at their club. 

" The fortunes of the English nobility, moreover, bear no comparison with 
the incomes of the cotton spinners of Manchester, the shipowners of Liver- 
pool, the iron masters of Wales, and the large contractors of public works. . 
It is also to be observed that these commercial men have no claims upon 
them, no hereditary charges to support, no courts and castles to keep up. 
They can, therefore, eclipse the titled classes wherever they meet. A sensi- 
ble man, indeed, will no longer accept a peerage, being conscious that it will 
make him more ridiculous than respected ; and an honest man will not take 
a title, because ii is generally understood that no favor can be obtained from 
any English Government by creditable means. Therefore, an official recog- 
nition of a politician's merits is merely looked upon as payment fjr some 
party job. Titles of nobility in England have ceased to have any significa- 
tion at all. Duke means leader ; but what and who is led by a man like 
the Duke of Montrose or the Duke of Newcastle ? Marquis means warden 
of the marches or frontiers of the country, and the absurd nickname was 
not long ago given to Lord Eipon for making a political blunder. Earl 
means chief of a county, say some; others assert that it means elder or grey- 
beard. In any case, Lord "Winchester cannot be supposed to rule over Not- 
tingham from the Bankruptcy Court, and there are earls still in their cradles. 
The title of viscount or vice-count is equally devoid of common sense at 
present, and no public duty of any kind is now attached to any title. Some 
hereditary Court offices are still held by certain families, but they have 
become sinecures, and the very men who hold them could not tell what they 
have to do. Thus, the Duke of St. Albans is Hereditary Grand Falconer; 
but there are no falcons now kept by the sovereign. The late Lord Wil- 
loughby D'Eresby, a very queer customer, was also Hereditary Grand Cham- 
berlain, but Lord Sydney is Chamberlain de facto, and even his chief duties 
are performed by a man of letters (Mr. Donne) not very widely known to fame, ' 
and whose very name is ignored by nine tenths of the people. The title of 
Hereditary Grand Chamberlain is now in abeyance between two ladies.- Tlie 
real lords and princes of the English people are the newspaper editors, and some 
half dozen writers who form and guide public opinion. They are not, indeed, 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KIN GK 293 

recognized as such, but they soon will be. No baron in the kingdom, not 
even Lord Robartes, one of the latest and the richest of the banker peers, 
wields such influence as Mr. Carlyle from his small house in Chelsea. The 
late Mr. Mill, too, was, as a matter of fact, the most potent of Englishmen. 
George Eliot, the novelist, is very influential, so is Mr. "Ward, the editor of 
the Saturday Review. The Times is rather out of date, and has long ceased 
to produce any effect on public opinion. The same observation applies to the 
Daily News, and in a lesser degree to the Standard. The Morning Post, 
though honestly conducted, is a class paper, the organ of polite society ; but 
the conductors of the Spectator are important people, and perhaps the leader 
writers on the Pall Mall Gazette take the first rank among the teachers and 
leaders of thoughtful men. No petty lordling comes up to the heel of these, 
the real nobility of the time. Then, in a secondary place, but still puissant, 
stand Mr. Tennyson, Mr. Yernon Harcourt, and a few poets and pamphleteers. 
They have quite superseded the nobility in the national esteem, and, if two 
opposite statements of a fact were put forward, the one signed by Lord 
Demanley, and the other by any known man of letters, his lordship's account 
of the transaction would not be credited for a moment." — Foreign Correspond- 
ence, N. T. Herald. 

If the writers who form and guide public opinion are not 
recognized in England as the real rulers of the land, they 
are at least in the United States, as vividly illustrated in 
the result of the fall elections of 1874. 

On no occasion which happened in the last or present 
century were u the coiners of scandal and clippers of repu- 
tation n more busy at work than on the marriage of the 
Prince of Wales. Almost every day produced its pamph- 
let, written either in the worst spirit of lampoon or un- 
blushingly defending the grossest errors. Mr. Jefferys was 
commissioned to provide the jewellery for the marriage, 
and was afterwards treated in the meanest manner by the 
Prince, who endeavored to cheat him (we will call things 
by their right names) out of his bill, and only got his money 
by an action in the Court of King's Bench. He afterwards 
published a pamphlet exposing the meanness. 

Without, however, referring to the immediate subject of 
Jefferys' pamphlet, we shall extract the following passage, 



294 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

as it contains a notification of the feelings of His Royal 
Highness on the proposed marriage, which is at complete 
variance with the generally received opinion ; but, as it is 
given upon the authority of the Prince himself, we will not 
pretend either to confirm or discredit it. 

"An event," says Mr. Jefferys, "was now about to take 
place, of great national importance, in the establishment of 
the Prince of Wales, the intelligence of which afforded very 
general satisfaction to the public. It was the proposed 
marriage of His Royal Highness with the Princess of 
Brunswick, and his expected final separation from Mrs. 
Fitzherbert. 

" At that period I passed much of my time at Carlton 
House, and, though I may provoke the hostility of the 
Prince of Wales and the anger of Mrs. Fitzherbert, I will 
state that which, from my being so frequently with His 
Royal Highness, I had an opportunity of observing and 
knowing. 

" I declare it to be my firm belief, however subsequent 
events, which may truly be termed unfortunate for His 
Royal Highness and for the country, may contradict the prob- 
ability of my assertion, that no person in the kingdom ap- 
peared to feel, and I believe at the time did actually feel, more 
sincere pleasure in the prospect of the proposed marriage, and 
the consequent separation from 3frs. Fitzherbert, than His 
Royal Highness. I will not repeat the expressions of His 
Royal Highness upon this subject, it is sufficient for me to 
say that what I heard was not of a nature to increase my 
respect for the character of that lady, but far otherwise, as 
it totally removed from my mind every apprehension I had 
before entertained that His Royal Highness would be dis- 
pleased by an application to her for money. I accordingly 
sent in my account, when I was told, at the house of Mrs. 
Fitzherbert, I must make my application to the Prince 
for the payment of it I therefore informed His Royal 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 295 

Highness of what had passed, who directed General Hnlse 
to discharge the account. 

" But to return to my narrative. On the proposed mar- 
riage of the Prince of Wales, His Royal Highness gave me 
orders to procure the jewels necessarj- on that occasion. 
ISTo limit was fixed for the amount, but that the finest and 
best of everything was to be provided. My wish was, in 
the execution of these orders, not to go to too great or an 
unnecessary expense ; but the magnitude of the occasion, 
and the extensive orders in pursuance of which I acted, 
exceeding my own ideas, the amount naturally extended to 
a very considerable sum, fifty-four thousand pounds ; and 
nearly ten thousand pounds, in addition, for the jewels as 
presents from His Royal Highness, on the marriage, to the 
Queen and Princesses. 

" It having been reported at the time that I had gone 
(contrary to what I have just asserted) to greater expense 
than was necessary, I beg leave, in contradiction of such 
report,. and to bring the question fairly before the public, 
to state the following circumstance : I had, by the desire 
of the Prince of Wales, procured a sitting for the miniature 
picture of His Royal Highness, intended to be sent to 
Brunswick for the Princess, surrounded with large bril- 
liants, and a brilliant chain, amounting to two thousand 
five hundred guineas. As soon as it was completed, I at- 
tended with His Royal Highness at Buckingham House, to 
submit it to the approbation of the Queen, previously to its 
being sent to the continent. Her Majesty thought it by no 
means of sufficient elegance for the occasion, and I accord- 
ingly prepared another, pursuant to the orders I then re- 
ceived, amounting to more than four thousand pounds. 

" Could it for a moment be supposed (without an insult 
to the high and august character of Her Majesty) that I 
hazarded anything by the executing the orders received 
from such authority. I could not, and did not, entertain, 



296 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

any doubts upon the subject, but acted as I was com- 
manded to do. 

" A considerable time after the jewels had been delivered, 
the amount of my charge was disputed by the commission- 
ers appointed to settle the Prince's affairs. I resisted the 
ruinous deduction they proposed to make, and submitted 
my claims to a jury of my country, in three actions 
brought against the commissioners, which came on before 
Lord Chief Justice Kenyon, in February, 1796. But the 
cause tried was for the jewels furnished for the Princess, 
amounting, as I have before said, to the sum of fifty -four 
thousand pounds, when I obtained a verdict for the whole 
of my demand, deducting only so much as was charged for 
the insurance of the Prince's life, which, from the magni- 
tude of the concern, and when it was considered who was 
the debtor, was a necessary measure of precaution. The 
Chief Justice, in his charge to the jury, stated, that the 
risk which had made such precaution necessary, being at 
an end, the insurance ought to be taken off the account. 
With this decision I was naturally satisfied, especially, 
when accompanied, as it was, by an observation from Lord 
Kenyon, that all hazard was then ended." 

In a former part of this work, we have related the cir- 
cumstance of the Prince borrowing £420 of Jefferys, which 
was to have been returned in ten days ; the manner in 
which he obtained the payment of this sum is contained in 
the following extract : 

" Through the medium of Mr. Tyrwhitt, then secretary to the Prince, I 
dutifully solicited an audience of His Royal Highness. I attended twice, 
each time by appointment, and waited many hours. At last, the Prince, com- 
ing into the room with several gentlemen, asked me, in a hasty tone of voice, 
'what I wanted?' T was so agitated with the contemplation of my own sit- 
uation, and so confused "by the unusual mode in which His Royal Highness 
spoke to me, as to be hardly able to make any answer. His Royal Highness 
then said, ' I believe I owe you some money ! four hundred and twenty 
pounds ; do you want it now V I humbly replied, when it suited His Royal 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING-. 29? 

Highness' convenience. The Prince said, ' Very well," 1 and left the room with' 
out another word ; nor was I able to form any expectation when it would be 
repaid. 

" Leaving Carlton House in a very dejected state of mind, as may be sup- 
posed, I met, in Pall Mall, the late Admiral Payne, who had been the confi- 
dential friend and secretary to the Prince, but hud recently been dismissed. 
Admiral Payne asking me if I had been lately at Carlton House, I related to 
him what had passed. He said the conduct I had experienced was most 
shameful, but that he could put me in the way of getting the money. 

" "We walked together for a considerable time in St. James' square, when 
he told me, if I would write such a letter as he would dictate, I could get 
the money directly. Pursuing his instructions, I accordingly wrote the same 
day to the Prince, stating my hope that His Royal Highness would excuse 
the application I made to him for the payment of the four hundred and 
twenty pounds, which I had advanced at his request nearly fifteen months 
before ; that my necessities were very urgent in consequence of the heavy 
losses I had sustained in his service ; the consideration of which, together 
with the recollection that the money had only been borrowed for a few days, 
would (I trusted) induce His Royal Highness not to leave town for Newmar- 
ket, where he was going in the morning, without first returning this money. 
That I was prevented by delicacy to His Royal Highness, in the morning 
when I had been with him, from mentioning the circumstance, so many gen- 
tlemen being present. 

" The letter produced the effect expected by Admiral Payne, the money 
betng sent- to me that evening. This application for money, I believe, pro- 
duced such a degree of irritation in the mind of the Prince, as to do away 
all recollection of what for years he had termed services ; and was, I believe, 
considered by His Royal Highness to be such an offence as never to be for- 
given." 

Prevailed on by the Princess of Wales, by his father, and 
by his best friends, as well as impressed with the import- 
ance and necessity of the measure, the Prince of Wales now 
reduced his establishment, but retained the Marchioness of 
Townshend, the Countesses of Jersey, Carnarvon, and 
Cholmondeley. The Princess requested only the discharge 
of one of their number, but the favor was refused. Quite a 
respectable harem. 

Soon after the marriage of the Prince and Princess, a 
circumstance occurred which excited the indignation of the 

13* 



298 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING-. 

Princess towards Lady Jersey, and tended additionally to 
develop the feelings of the Qneen towards the Princess. In 
the month of August, 1795, whilst residing at Brighton, 
the Princess committed to the care of Dr. Eandolph a 
packet of letters to convey to Brunswick, as he expressed 
his intention of visiting Germany. Those letters were 
private and confidential ; they contained strictures on 
the character of the Queen, and one of them had been im- 
prudently laid about by Her Eoyal Highness after she had 
written it. That letter was perused by Lady Jersey, and 
to the Queen she determined to convey it, with those which 
constituted the remainder of the packet. The letters never 
reached their destination, and were afterwards possessed 
by Queen Charlotte. How are those circunutances to be 
accounted for? The Princess repeatedly stated that she 
knew the letters were intercepted by the Countess of Jersey 
and delivered by her to the Queen. Lady Jersey denied 
the charge j she contended that she had no concern with 
the packet, and that to Dr. Eandolph alone all blame must 
attach. He, in his turn, exculpated himself from the charge, 
and gave a statement to Lady Jersey of all the circum- 
stances, maintaining that, not visiting Brunswick, he had 
returned the packet by coach to the Princess. The Princess 
expressed herself indignant at the loss, and required an 
explanation. Inquiries and investigations ensued; but it 
was not for some time after the charge was made, nor until 
the public newspapers accused her of treachery, deceit, and 
embezzlement, that Lady Jersey endeavored to clear her 
character from such imputations. 

On the 17th of January, 1796, being just nine calendar 
months, wanting one day, from her marriage, Her Eoyal 
Highness the Princess of Wales was delivered of a princess 
at Carlton House, between the hours of nine and ten in the 
morning. Conformably to the etiquette observed on such 
occasions, His Boyal Highness the Duke of Gloucester, His 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 299 

Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor, 
the Lord President of His Majesty's Council, His Grace the 
Duke of Leeds, the Earl of Jersey, Master of the Horse to 
His Boy al Highness the Prince of Wales, the Eight Honor- 
able Lord Thurlow, and the Ladies of the Princess of Wales' 
bedchamber, were present at the ro/al accouchement. 

The royal infant was christened in the grand audience 
ohamber at Carlton House, on the 16th of February, His 
Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury performing the cere- 
mony. The sponsors were His Majesty, the Queen, and 
Her Eoyal Highness the Princess Eoyal, proxy for Her 
Serene Highness the Duchess of Brunswick. 
. Addresses of congratulation, as usual in England, were 
voted by both Houses of Parliament, and x>resented to their 
Majesties, and to their Highnesses the Prince and Princess 
of Wales, who received the two Houses in a private manner. 
The corporation of the City of London, at the same time, 
voted an address of congratulation to their " Eoj-al High- 
nesses;" but it being intimated to the Lord Mayor by Lord 
Cholmondeley, who was at the head of His Eoyal Highness' 
household, " that the Prince of Wales, being under the 
necessity of reducing his establishment, he was precluded 
from receiving the addresses in a manner suitable to his 
situation f and desiring that copies of the address might 
be sent to him, it was moved by Mr. Deputy Birch, " That 
His Eoyal Highness the Prince of Wales having stated that 
the inadequacy of his establishment precluded him from 
receiving the compliments of congratulation voted to be 
presented to their Eoyal Highnesses in a way suitable to 
his situation, this Court is of opinion that it cannot, consist- 
ently with its own dignity, suffer the said compliments to 
be presented in any other way than the customary form." 
After some conversation, the motion was agreed to, and the 
Eemembrancer was ordered to convey a copy of it to " His 
Eoyal Highness." 



300 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

At the next Court of Common Council, the Lord Mayor 
rose to state to the Court the conference he had had with 
the Prince of Wales on the subject of not receiving the con- 
gratulatory address of the city in the usual form $ observing 
that, in a matter of so delicate a nature, he had thought it 
his duty to commit the purport of this conversation to 
writing, which, with the leave of the Court, he would read. 

As a specimen of obsequiousness in the use of title by the 
English (the reiteration of " His Royal Highness," to Amer- 
icans, is simply disgusting,) we insert the following : 

"In consequence of a letter from Lord Cholmondeley, dated January 31st, 
1*796, stating that His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales wished to speak 
to me at Carlton House, and to give me a private audience on Tuesday (but 
which appointment was afterwards, "by a second letter, fixed for Monday 
last, at one o'clock), I had the honor of waiting on His Royal Highness, who 
addressed me by saying, 'that he had seen with concern in the public 
papers a statement of what had passed in the Court of Common Council on 
Thursday last, respecting a letter written by Lord Cholmondeley, at the com- 
mand of His Royal Highness, and sent to the City Remembrancer, convey- 
ing his sentiments on the intended address of congratulation to their Royal 
Highnesses, which sentiments he conceived had been mistaken or misunder- 
stood, or, at least, a very different construction had been given to them than 
he meant, or was intended to be conveyed by that letter. His Royal High- 
ness said that he thought it incumbent on him to preserve a consistent char- 
acter ; that, as his establishment, for certain reasons, had been reduced, and 
that the necessary state appendages attached to the character and rank of 
His Royal Highness the Prince of "Wales did not in consequence exist, His 
Royal Highness conceived he could not receive an address in state, and par- 
ticularly from the corporation of the City of London, for which he enter- 
tained the highest veneration and respect. His Royal Highness, therefore, 
thought it would appear disrespectful to the first body corporate in the king- 
dom to receive the members of it inconsistently with their character and his 
own dignity." 

His Royal Highness — His Royal Highness — His — pah ! 

The language of Thomas Paine, in his letter to Lord 
Erskine, in which he alludes to " Mr, Ouelph and his profli- 
gate sons,' 7 affords a striking contrast to the above. 

The result of the quarrels of the Prince and Princess of 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 301 

Wales, previous and subsequent to her accouchement, was 
neither magical nor singular; mutual distrust, dissatis- 
faction, and want of affection, were naturally succeeded by 
indifference and disgust. The Prince loved society, and 
did not love his home. He loved Mrs. Fitzherbert, and 
did not love his consort. He had not selected her for his 
wife, and the worthless and interested had vilified her. 
She was unsuited to the Prince, and she soon discovered 
the fact; she was open and ingenuous, and so was the 
Prince ; they neither concealed their dislikes, but the one 
was well and the other ill founded ; the one was the result 
of unkindness, justifiable jealousy, neglect, and misrepre- 
sentation ; the other resulted from the previous dislike of 
the Prince to marriage; from his original indifference to 
the Princess, and from his affection for other women, less 
morally and mentally deserving. Whenever the Princess 
complained to the King, he pitied her, and sympathized 
with her ; but he advised that privacy should be observed, 
and, if they could not be happy with each other, at least 
that their external conduct should not indicate their dis- 
like. To this recommendation they mutually deferred, and 
she enumerated the profligate women the Prince kept 
about him; said " she had been deceived — wished she had 
not left her own country." 

The Princess of Wales spoke the English language with 
a strong foreign accent. In illustration, we give an extract 
from a letter by Sir W. Gell, at the time, to a friend out of 
London : 

"The Princess is trying to make up a marriage for Joan with, some one; 
anyone would do. ' mein G-ott, she has the eyes of Argus ; 'pon honor, 1 
vonder sometimes how she guess what I tink ; 'tis a great plague to have dis 
dragon, de Virtue alwiys attending me: partant — partant — I must find a 
husband to deliver her.' "* 

It appears that Her Royal Highness looked upon this 

* Diary of the Time of George IV, by Gait, vol. 4, page 130. 



302 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

great moral and Christian attribute as a dragon. Here is 
also a literal transcript from one of her letters ; it appears 
she spelled her words as she spoke them ; it also contains a 
very suggestive reflection on the morality of the royal 

family: 

" August 1, 1814. 

" I am on the eve of sailing, which will be to-morrow evening, as the wind 
is favorable, in the Jason frigate. Capt. King represents Jason himself. Only 
tinh, my dear, what His Royal Highness, the Duke of York, said to him : ' Vou 

are going to take the Princess of Wales in your ship, you be a d d fool if 

you do hot make love to her.' Mein Gott, dot is de morality of my broders-'va- 
law." * 

The Prince visited Brighton with Mrs. Fitzherbert and 
Lady Jersey, and endeavored to render himself happy. 
The King reproached him for leaving a wife he had vowed 
to cherish, and expressed a desire for a reconciliation, which 
was impossible — as the Prince made no attempt to conceal 
his dislike for her person and society. Tbe Princess now 
resided at Carlton House and the Prince at Windsor, and 
interviews but rarely occurred. The expediency of a sepa- 
ration was again suggested to the Princess, in March, 1796, 
and, feeling that her situation could not be made more 
painful, she intimated to Lady Cholmondeley that, if she so 
separated noiVj she would have it expressly understood that, 
in case of the death of the Princess Charlotte prior to her- 
self, she would not consent again to cohabit with the Prince, 
merely for the purpose of preserving the succession of that 
branch of the royal family to the crown, t She requested 
that she might be definitely informed of the wishes of the 
Prince, expressing a willingness to reside with her husband, 
if his conduct was so altered that her palace could be made 
the abode of happiness, or even peace. Lord Cholmondeley 
conveyed her message to the Prince, who returned a reply, 

* Gait's Diary, vol. 4, page 81. London, 1831. 

\ Her daughter, the Princess Charlotte, would, in the event of the death 
of the Prince, be the next in succession to the throne. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 303 

that, " His Eoyal Highness thought an immediate separa- 
tion had better take place." The Princess was not content 
with a mere verbal message upon a subject of such vital 
importance to her interests, and demanded a reply in writing, 
that she might be assured the communications she received 
emanated from the Prince, and not from artful individuals 
desirous of promoting a separation from personal and 
sordid motives. The sympathies of the civilized world have 
never ceased to have been excited in behalf of Josephine 
at her cruel divorce from Napoleon; the situation of the 
Princess, at this period, is no less entitled to our commis- 
eration. 

The heartless character of the Prince in no instance is 
more strongly manifested than in this reply, which he ad- 
dressed to her in response to her request : 

" Madam : 

" As Lord Oholmondeley informs me that you wish. I would define, in 
writing, the terms upon which we are to live, I shall endeavor to explain 
myself on that head with as much clearness and with as much propriety as 
the nature of the subject will admit. Our inclinations are not in our power, 
nor should either of us be held answerable to the other because nature has 
not made us suitable to each other. Tranquil and comfortable society is, 
however, in our power ; let our intercourse, therefore, be restricted to that, 
and I will distinctly subscribe to the condition which you required, through 
Lady Cholmondoley, that, even in the event of any accident happening to my 
daughter — which I trust Providence in its mercy will avert — I shall not in- 
fringe the terms of the restriction by proposing, at any period, a connection 
of a more particular nature. I shall now finally close this disagreeable cor- 
respondence, trusting that, as we have completely explained ourselves to 
each other, the rest of our lives will be passed in uninterrupted tranquillity. 

" I am, Madam, 
" With great truth, very sincerely yours, 

" GrEORGE P. 

"Windsor Castle, April 30th, 1796." 

This letter would have been more appropriately signed, 

George D . 

This letter, about which so much lias been said and 



304 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

written, was merely a link in the chain , though certainly 
one of considerable importance. That letter admits, first, 
that to the Princess of Wales he was not attached j sec- 
ondly, that he had no specific charge to bring against the 
conduct of Her Royal Highness ; and, thirdly, that a sepa- 
ration was essential to his happiness and tranquillity. By 
the letter, however, the Princess was surprised, agitated, 
and vexed. It was true that of a separation they had often 
spoken, but when the event was presented to her, in the 
light of reality and immediate occurrence, she was grieved 
and disappointed. The Princess hesitated as to the course 
which it would be prudent for her to adopt, and, accord- 
ingly, first determined on consulting her parents in Bruns- 
wick 5 but the time which would elapse prior to receiving 
an answer, and all delays being improper, she resolved, at 
tfce advice of a particular friend, to consult the King, and 
to write a speedy answer to the Prince. To the Prince she 
accordingly communicated, in French, her reply to his let- 
ter, and to the translation of which particular attention 
should be paid: 

" The avowal of your conversation with Lord Cholmondeley neither sur- 
prises nor offends me ; it merely confirmed what you have tacitly insinuated 
for this twelvemonth. But after this it would be a want of delicacy, or 
rather an unworthy meanness in me, were I to complain of those conditions 
which you impose upon yourself. 

"I should have returned no answer to your letter, if it had not been con- 
ceived in terms to make it doubtful whether this arrangement proceeds from 
you or from me, and you are aware that the honor of it belongs to you alone. 

" The letter which you announce to me as the last obliges me to commu- 
nicate to the King, as to my sovereign and my father, both your avowal and 
my answer. You will find inclosed the copy of my letter to the King. I 
apprise you of it that I may not incur the slightest approach of duplicity 
from you. As I have at this moment no protector but His Majesty, I refer 
myself solely to him upon this subject, and if my conduct meet his approba- 
tion, I shall be in some degree, at least, consoled. I retain every sentiment 
of gratitude for the situation in which I find myself, as Princess of Wales, 
enabled by your means to indulge in the free exercise of a virtue dear to my 
heart — I mean charity. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 305 

"It "will be my duty, likewise, to act upon another motive — that of giving 
an example of patience and resignation under every trial. 

"Do me the justice to believe that I shall never cease to pray for your 
happiness, and to be 

" Tour much devoted 

" Caroline. 
" May 6, 1796." 

Of tlie letter of the Prince, it has been said that it is a 
" Letter of Licence" to the Princess, and to a certain ex- 
tent the title is applicable $ but still it was just such a lette r 
as the previous conduct of the Prince should have induced 
her to expect, and it was highly creditable to her character. 
It accused her of no crime, nor of any imj>ropriety of con- 
duct. The Prince could not and did not love the Princess, 
and that was neither her fault nor his own. He admitted 
it. But then the question arises : Whether, although he 
could not love her, yet, as he had solemnly pledged himself 
to love and cherish her, he ought not to have abstained 
from those connections with other individuals, which neces- 
sarily tended to increase as well as perpetuate those senti- 
ments of indifference, and ultimately of dislike, which were 
entertained by the Prince. As to the propriety of such 
abstinence there could not surely be any doubt, and it was 
all that was required by the Princess of Wales. Nor ought 
she to have desired more. The Prince she did not love, 
though she esteemed and honored him, and she had, there- 
fore, no right to expect from him feelings more ardent than 
her own j but it did not follow that she should expect, first, 
indifference, then dislike, and finally persecution, from him 
to whom she looked up for protection. 

This letter tacitly admitted the correctness of her con- 
duct. " The inclinations of each other were not within their 
own power, nor should either of them be answerable to the 
other because nature had not made them suitable to each 
other.' 7 This was the alleged reason for the separation, 
and it was certainly the final reason ; but had the Prince 



\ 



303 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KLNG. 

endeavored to ascertain whether they were made so suit- 
able ? Certainly not. Before his future consort had visited 
England, an arrangement is stated to have been made with 
Lady Jersey $ afterwards her scandal and reproaches were 
listened to, and retailed 5 then the marriage bed was 
forsaken $ Mrs. Fitzherbert was retaken under royal pro- 
tection, and the Princess wholly discarded. Nor was this 
all ; her enemies were placed as sentinels over her conduct, 
although the society and protection of her husband she did 
not enjoy $ and she who was a foreigner, a Princess of 
Brunswick, an intelligent and accomplished female, was 
destined to live not merely in solitude, but in the midst of 
scandal and reproach. 

On the receipt of the letter from the Prince, the Princess 
of Wales consulted with a political friend of his as to the 
conduct she should adopt. He expressed himself surprised 
and grieved; but persuaded her immediately to consult 
her father and monarch, George III. Such advice har- 
monized with her own feelings ; yet she expressed herself 
desirous to avoid distressing his mind, and agitating his 
sensibility, by narrations which could not fail of producing 
dissatisfaction and unhappiness, and perhaps make him 
crazy again ; but it was impossible. Lord Oholmondeley 
advised her that a reconciliation appeared impracticable, 
since the feelings of the Prince were not the result of 
momentary displeasure, but of a long determined indiffer- 
ence, now amounting to dislike. He gave such opinion 
with his usual politeness and respect, and she felt that it 
was most likely to be correct. She then thought of return- 
ing to her father ; but it was impossible so to act, without 
incurring the charge of impropriety of conduct ; and, after 
much hesitation, she resolved on the letter which she 
sent, and determined on transmitting a copy to His 
Majesty. 

The letter to the Prince she wrote in French, because 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 307 

she could correspond in that language with greater pro- 
priety and elegance 5 and a copy of such communication 
she sent with a letter to the King. His Majesty wrote to her 
and visited her. He deplored her situation, and endeavored 
by every possible method to remedy the evils which he had 
been the unintentional instrument of producing. His son 
he could not reproach for not loving a woman whom he 
had married from policy ; and his attachments to Lady 
Jersey and Mrs. Fitzherbert had been so frequently dis- 
cussed and reprobated by him, that fresh animadversions 
were unnecessary. The Prince said and wrote but little on 
the subject. Alienated from his wife, he yet respected the 
dignity of the royal family, and he supremely desired that 
privacy, as much as possible, should be preserved. In this 
respect all parties agreed, and the terms of separation now 
alone remained to be discussed. Concerning those arrange- 
ments some difference of opinion occurred. The King 
thought it was possible for a separation to take place with- 
out an actual change of residence, whilst the Prince and 
Princess were each favorable to a complete alteration. 
The King thought that £20,000 per annum should be 
allowed to the Princess for a separate maintenance ; whilst 
she was advised to reject such income, and transmit 
periodically to the Prince her accounts for payment. To 
remedy the first difference, it was determined that apart- 
ments should be reserved for her at Carlton House, which 
she might occasionally visit ; and to remove any objections 
as to the proposed plan of her maintenance, she pro- 
mised to be economical in her arrangements, and retired 
in her habits. 

For some time, however, after these arrangements were 
concluded, the Princess continued to reside at Carlton 
House, and the Prince at Windsor and Brighton ; till at 
length she retired to Charlton, a small but beautiful 
village in the vicinity of London ; where, in a compara- 



308 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

tively humble abode, the Princess of Wales resided for 
two years. To that place her beloved child accompanied 
her, and Miss Garth, Miss Vernon, Mrs. Harcourt, and 
Mrs. Sander, with a few other ladies, formed her estab- 
lishmeut. 

The Princess was now apprised of the renewal of the in- 
timacy between the Prince and Mrs. Fitzherbert, but to 
the latter she never communicated on the subject j yet, in a 
memorable letter published at this time, and addressed to 
Mrs. Fitzherbert and the Prince, the writer has neither 
overstated, on the one hand, the intimacy of the Prince with 
her, nor, on the other, the feelings of dissatisfaction and dis- 
gust which it excited. In a letter to Mrs. Fitzherbert are 
the following energetic passages, evidently written under a 
strong impulse of resentment and indignation: 

" When the Prince of Wales was married to the Princess, 
it was agreed that you should retire from that intimacy of 
friendship you had so long enjoyed, and your houses in 
Pall Mall and at Brighton were given up accordingly. 

" However creditable, prospectively, to your character, 
that you did retire to the villa purchased for you at Castle- 
bear, yet, viewed in a retrospective light, the necessity of 
such a retreat, accompanied as it was by a pension of 
several thousands per annum, payable quarterly at an 
eminent banker's, and a retention of the very valuable 
plate, jewels, etc., given to you by the Prince, did not, in 
the opinion of the world, add much good fame to your 
reputation. 

" Had you continued in the retirement expected of you, 
the world would probably never have disturbed you in the 
enjoyment of your great possessions by any reflections 
upon the mode of their acquisition j but, not long after the 
Prince of Wales was married, His Royal Highness discon- 
tinued to live with the Princess, and returned to your 
society, in which he was eagerly received. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 309 

" On this unexpected renewal of intimacy, an establish- 
ment upon a still larger scale was formed for you — a noble 
house in Park Lane, most magnificently fitted up, and 
superbly furnished — a large retinue of servants — carriages 
of various descriptions — a new pavilion, built for your 
separate residence at Brighton — and the Prince more fre- 
quently in your society than ever. 

" When, madam, your friends pretend that your feel- 
ings are hurt, let me ask you and them, if you think the 
people of moral character in this country have no feelings ? 
I am sure they must relinquish all claim to any, if they 
could view with indifference such a departure from decency 
as this conduct exhibits in you, and not see, with anxiety 
and fear for the future, the probable result of such a dread- 
ful infatuation, not less dangerous to the future interest of 
the country than any that was ever experienced at the 
profligate Court of Versailles." 

And, in a letter to His Eoyal Highness, the same writer 
says: "I shall not, however, Sir, so easily pass over your 
renewal of the connection you had agreed to abandon with 
a lady, whose society, from her equivacal character, one 
part of the fashionable world thinks it their duty to avoid 5 
while the other, more polite, in compliance with the expec- 
tation of your Eoyal Highness, as a tribute of respect to 
yourself, that the lady should be of every party where you 
are invited, sacrifice their sense of decorum to their vanity, 
while your Eoyal Highness, who can exact such a conces- 
sion, as the price of your company or tribute to your rank, 
does not manifest that regard to the opinion of the nation 
which they have a right to expect. 

a The defiance to public opinion in the departure from 
decency which the conduct of the lady alluded to exhibits, 
since the marriage of your Eoyal Highness, is such as can- 
not be reprobated with too much severity, and is very 
justly appreciated by the public by whom her name is 



310 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING-. 

never mentioned unaccompanied with expressions of the 
greatest contempt. 

u The forlorn and hapless female, compelled to seek 
refuge from famine and despair in resources which her 
aching heart condemns, claims at once the pity and for- 
giveness of the world. But the female who, surrounded by 
affluence, prostitutes herself in the open face of day ought 
to be pointed out as a public mark of infamy and vice." 

In regard to the conduct of Mrs. Fitzherbert, we must be 
allowed to express our opinion as in some measure coin- 
ciding with that of the writer of the letters from which the 
foregoing extracts have been taken; at the same time, it 
must be admitted that it would have been expecting too 
much from her to have required that, when solicited by the 
Prince to renew their intimacy, and when visited by him, 
that she should refuse so to do. That the Prince required 
that Mrs. Fitzherbert should be one of every party to which 
he was invited is undeniably true ; and that he quitted two 
parties where she was not so present, under evident signs 
of displeasure, is a notorious fact, and was much com- 
mented upon at the time, as a positive infraction of the 
common rules of propriety and decorum. 

It should also be taken into consideration, by those who 
view the conduct of Mrs. Fitzherbert at this time, as exhi- 
biting some of the darker traits of female turpitude, that 
the relation in which that lady stood in regard to the Prince 
was one, perhaps, of the most extraordinary in which a 
woman was ever placed. She was conscious to herself that 
she possessed a prior claim to the hand and bed of His 
Eoyal Highness, and that she had been deprived of the one 
and alienated from the other by an act of mere state policy, 
which condemned him to the thraldom of a public marriage, 
which was repugnant to his own feelings, and to which his 
heart was most decidedly opposed. This, however, is the 
only palliation that can be advanced for the conduct of Mrs. 



THE PRIVATE LEFE OF A KTNG-. 311 

Fitzherbert after the marriage of the Prince; for, after 
having formally consented to discontinue her intimacy with 
the Prince, on certain weighty considerations, a renewal of 
that intimacy, after marriage, cannot be considered as 
agreeable to their propriety or principle. 

It would not admit of the slightest doubt that the conduct 
of the Prince, and the open measures which he took to 
renew his connection with Mrs. Fitzherbert, met with the 
most marked disapprobation and reprobation of his wife. 
She expostulated, but all her expostulations were disre- 
garded. Her disapprobation was ridiculed as foolish, her 
reprobation as wholly unworthy of notice. Her argument 
was, that she was used merely as a tool to perpetuate the 
base blood of the Guelphs, that England might have in her 
offspring a " legitimate royal heir to the crown." 

It was not, however, solely to Park Lane that the Princess 
of Wales looked for the infidelity of her illustrious (?) hus- 
band, but certain scenes were actually carried on under the 
very roof of her own residence that would have been more 
in character had they been enacted in the den of Circe than 
in the palace of the heir apparent to the British crown, and 
under the immediate observation of his legitimate wife. 

We have no disposition to press heavily upon the charac- 
ter of any individual, especially that of a female, whose 
good name is the brightest gem in her dowry ; but wherever 
we behold vice stand arrayed before us in all the plenitude 
of its atrocity, we then disregard all distinctions of person 
or of rank, and we will lash the thong of censure to its last 
thread, until " the galled jade is made to wince," and the 
deep scars of merited chastisement show themselves obtru- 
sive to the gaze of the indignant public. 

That this heartless man, this Prince, soon lost sight of all 
observance of even the commonest principles of matrimonial 
attention, degenerating into positive insult to the feelings 
of a woman, who had as yet conducted herself with the 



312 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

utmost decorum and propriety, was a fact too well known 
by every inmate of Carlton House to be concealed long 
from the public, and loud and lasting were the deep expres- 
sions of the public indignation which burst from every 
quarter on his head. He was now marching at a rapid rate 
to that extreme verge of unpopularity which he soon after- 
wards reached, and which, but for the strong arm of power, 
would have shaken the peace of the country to its very 
base. Nor did the conduct of his mother, the Queen Char- 
lotte, tend in any degree to appease the popular ferment. 
She even vindicated in the Court circles the conduct of her 
son — expressed doubts as to the moral character of the 
Princess to a member of the royal family now departed; 
and, instead of being anxious to hush the jarring elements 
of discord into peace, she only increased the dissatisfaction, 
and fanned the flame of personal dislike between the royal 
couple by her most unwise and improper interference. The 
Princess, on the other hand, was, perhaps, nearly equally 
faulty. She studied not to conceal her resentment and dislike. 
She paid a marked deference to the King and Queen. The 
former she caressed as a father, whilst the latter she received 
with all the stiffness and formality of Court etiquette. That 
the Princess of Wales acted frequently with the utmost 
indiscretion and folly cannot for a moment be disputed, for 
to whom did she complain of the harsh and cruel treatment 
which she received ? Not to those individuals who might 
possess not only the power but the inclination to redress 
her wrongs, but she denounced the conduct of her husband, 
and of her husband's mother, to the very individual who 
was then living under the same roof with her as the mis- 
tress of her husband, and for whose removal from, her 
household she had petitioned, but petitioned in vain. She 
made Lady Jersey the confidant of her sorrows, the depos- 
itary of her grievances ; and the treacherous creature imme- 
diately hastened to the Queen, and there disclosed that 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 313 

information which, had been so thoughtlessly and so impru- 
dently communicated to her in the moments of unsuspect- 
ing confidence, and which was afterwards made use of in 
the most treacherous manner as a part of the proofs of her 
immoral and immodest conduct. 

Carlton House may be looked upon, at this time, as a 
Pandora's box, filled with treachery and vice. The imme- 
diate associates of the Prince, male and female, were per- 
sons distinguished for their immorality of conduct, their 
licentiousness, and debauchery. Scenes of the most inde- 
cent nature were daily and nightly practised under its roof, 
which, as it was now the residence of a virtuous wife and a 
mother, ought to have been uncontaminated by the pres- 
ence of the harlot or the libertine. It was about this time 
that a character was introduced to Carlton House, admir- 
ably fitted for the performance of any act which required 
dexterity or deep finesse ; and who, although originally a 
pauper of the very lowest cast, by his dexterous manage- 
ment of an intrigue, and jumping over a few punctilios, 
which the rigidly moral man would have declined over- 
stepping at all, became, at last, the confidant of the heir 
apparent to the crown, the distributor of places and emolu- 
ments ; and, at the same time, as Tom Moore designated 
him, his ridicule and reticule. 

We are aware that in the following exposure we shall 
call down upon our heads the indignation of the surviving 
members of Sir John M'Mahon; but, at the same time 
that we profess an esteem for that man who raises himself, 
by his talents and an honorable course of action, from a 
menial situation to one of rank and emolument, with the 
same spirit do we deprecate that individual, who, crouching 
at the feet of his superiors, will lend himself to the com- 
mission of the meanest and most disgraceful actions for the 
sole purpose of his own personal aggrandisement. We 
should not, however, have deemed it necessary to enter 

14 



314 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

into any detail of the birth, parentage, and conduct of the 
quondam Privy Purse to the Prince of Wales, if it did not 
present an original picture of the state of society at that 
time, as far as influence and character extended, in the 
appointment of many of the principal officers who formed 
the household of the Prince of Wales. It was not talent, it 
was not an unsullied reputation, which then formed the 
stepping stone to advancement, but the finished adept at 
an intrigue, the artful seducer of a wife's affections, or the 
hasband who would leave his residence at one door, while a 
prince entered it at another, and absent himself for the 
night $ these were the men to whom the door of prefer- 
ment stood open, on whom all honors and dignities were 
showered, as if reward were the concomitant of infamy, and 
emolument the attendant on vice. 

The Courts of most princes are the same, and the intrigues 
of courtiers operate and promote similar results. This may, 
in a great measure, be attributed to the leading principle, 
that the higher the power the more stationary its action. 
While, therefore, civilization has progressed in an almost 
equal ratio with population, Courts and courtiers do not 
keep pace with the improved intelligence of the age $ the 
former forming, as it were, a terra incognita^ and the latter a 
distinct race of people, although of the same community 
and country, and subject to the same laws as society in 
general. This was peculiarly the case with the Court of His 
late Majesty to the very period of his decease. The few 
persons called the King's private friends, such as the Duke 
of Devonshire, Earl Cowper, etc., were occasionally guests 
at the royal board, but were never consulted nor advised 
with. They had no political influence, nor desired any. 
Ductile as wax, they were impressed with the signet of 
majesty, and held in the same estimation as the autograph 
of the handwriting on the wall, for their rarity j or, like 
the gold plate of the household, only exhibited on extraor- 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 315 

dinary occasions, to give dignity to the presence of the 
King himself, or to add to the splendor of his hospitality. 
On all other occasions the circle of the Prince of Wales, as 
well then as when he was King, was composed of persons 
raised by his bounty to the rank of companions — no matter 
by what nature of services that dignity had been obtained, 
or how far personal character had been injured or offended 
by them. Their dependency was assured on terms which 
declared their own baseness and meanness, and like satel- 
lites they revolved round the royal planet, but in no other 
atmosphere could their splendor be acknowledged. 

On referring to the pages of history, and particularly to 
those which treat of the actions of the sovereigns of the 
earth, it will appear as an extraordinary fact that their 
favorites have generally been chosen from the dregs of soci- 
ety, and that, in the majority of instances, their aggrandize- 
ment has been owing to their adroitness in intrigue, or to 
their total disregard of those solemn ties which are inter- 
woven with the dearest affections of our nature, and by 
which the interests of society are held together. On the 
female side of favoritism the aspect is, if possible, still more 
hideous ; for there it has generally risen from the very 
worst of passions, which to gratify it would feed on offal. 
A Lanskoi, a Struensee, and a Godoy, were the selected 
favorites of crowned heads, and all of them born in the 
lowest grade of human society, yet all of them rising to the 
highest honors ; and although one of them forfeited his life 
on the scaffold, yet he once ruled the destinies of a nation ; 
and, but for the illicit affection of his Queen for him, would 
perhaps have lived to be the regenerator of his country.* 

We may be excused this digression, as being introduc- 
tory to a short biographical detail of the actions of an indi- 
vidual who was the confidant and the companion of the 
Prirfce of Wales, and who, we have reason to know, was 

. * HuiBh. 



316 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

deeper implicated in some of the amorous transactions of 
His Royal Highness than any of his predecessors who held 
the same office. 

John M'Mahon, the companion of the Prince, was a nat- 
ural son of John M'Mahon, butler in the family of the 
Right Honorable Mr. Clements, afterwards Lord Leitrim, 
of the Park, near Dublin. His mother was a chambermaid 
in the same family. At the age of nine, young John was 
taken into the same family as kitchen boy, to clean knives 
and boots. His father soon afterwards left the service of 
Mr. Clements, and opened an oyster shop in Dublin, which 
gave him an opportunity of sending his son to school, where 
he made such rapid progress in his learning that he was 
appointed one of the under ushers, at a salary of £10 a 
year. His father afterwards married a Miss Stacpoole, of 
the county Clare, by whom he had two sons, afterwards Sir 
Thomas and Sir William M'Mahon ; and at a future period 
a very extraordinary difficulty arose in regard to there being 
two Johns in the same family, on which a bill in equity was 
filed in Dublin, in which John M'Mahon, the Privy Purse of 
the Prince of Wales, was made a party ; and he was 
obliged to put in his answer, and to swear that he believed 
he was the natural son of John M'Mahon, and that his 
mother, the maidservant, was never married to him, nor . 
anyone else. 

John M'Mahon now obtained the situation of an excise- 
man ; but finding the employment of measuring and guag- 
ing beer and whiskey rather dull and stupid, he formed an 
acquaintance with Mr. John Ferrar, the then proprietor of 
the " Limerick Chronicle," and a few other literary trades- 
men, and they formed a debating society, each person to 
pay Q\d. admission fee. 

The novelty of the plan occasioned very crowded houses, 
and the projectors of it soon found themselves in possession 
of funds to the amount of £500. The society, however, 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 317 

was not of long duration ; and M'Mahon left Limerick for 
Dublin, where he was not very well received by his father, 
who procured hiin, however, the situation of a petty clerk 
in the Treasury, which he occupied for about two years; 
but, being dismissed with disgrace, his father refused to in- 
terest himself any further about him, and, being thrown 
upon the world, he joined a company of strolling players, 
with whom he remained about two years. One night, as 
he was acting the character of Scrub, in the "Beaux Strata- 
gem," at Ennis, County Clare, he attracted the notice of 
Mr. William English, then well known by the cognomen of 
Buck English,* who being a man of gallantry, and exces- 
sively partial to the female sex, soon found in his new ser- 
vant a most able coajutor in his designs upon the wives 
and daughters of the gentry and peasantry in his neigh- 
borhood. In one instance, however, although M'Mahon 
succeeded in obtaining the lady, it proved a dear bargain 
to his employer. This was the case of Mrs. Kissane, whose 
husband lived about a mile from the town of Tipperary. 
Mr. Kissane was a gentleman considerably advanced in 
years ; his wife was young and beautiful, and therefore she 
became the object of English's desires, and M'Mahon was 
employed to carry on the intrigue. He succeeded so far as 
to conduct Mrs. Kissane to the spot where she was to meet 
Mr. English ; but being observed by a man of the name of 

* This English was one of the most extraordinary characters of the day. 
He acquired his property in a very singular manner, for his father, who was 
a day laborer, being at work on the lands of Shoonhill, county Tipperary. 
then the property of the ancestors of the late Lady Caroline Damer, he found 
a large earthen vase filled with gold, that was supposed to have been hidden 
thereupon the arrival of Oliver Cromwell at the siege of Clonmell. "With 
this money, old William English purchased lands and houses, which at his 
death became the property of his son, William Alexander English, the patron 
of M' ^%hon. He fought two duels, in both of which he killed his antago- 
nist ; and, being once in England, he killed a waiter at an inn, and had him 
charged in the bill at £50. 



\ 



318 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

Shew, the latter placed a ladder so that he might look in at 
the window, and there saw sufficient to convict the parties 
of crim. con., and damages were awarded against Mr. Eng- 
lish of £1,500. 

M'Mahon's stay under the roof of Mr. English was not 
of long duration, for one night the latter, being drunk, or- 
dered M'Mahon to act the part of Scrub for the entertain- 
ment of the company ; but M'Mahon refused, on which Mr. 
English took up a stick and laid M'Mahou prostrate on the 
ground ; and if it had not been for the interference of Lieu- 
tenant Hiffernan of the 32d Eegiment, who was then com- 
manding a recruiting party in the town of Tipperary, it is 
most probable that M'Mahon would not have lived to be- 
come the Privy Purse of the Prince. With a lacerated 
head, and the whole of his wardrobe, consisting of two 
shirts, a comb, a razor, and a pair of black breeches, he left 
the house of Mr. English $ and the schoolboys of the town, 
with Mr. Began, Mr. Keating, and other gentlemen, raised 
a subscription for him at one shilling each, and obtained 
for him a bed at the house of a poor widow, of the name of 
Eose Burne, at the weekly rent of three shillings and six 
pence (British,) for the payment of which Lieutenant Hiffer- 
nan became security. When this worthy officer was 
obliged to leave the service, on account of ill health, and 
being considerably reduced in circumstances, he sent the 
following curious bill to Lieutenant Colonel M'Mahon, then 
an inmate of Carlton House; and it was delivered by 
Major Mansergh, of the 32d Eegiment, with the injunction 
on the part of Lieutenant Hiffernan not to declare the 
nature of the bill, as it might hurt the feelings of the 
favored companion of the Prince. We have, however, ob- 
tained a copy of the bill ; and it was not only discharged 
by M'Mahon, but three guineas were added to it, and he 
subsequently obtained an ensigncy for one of Hiffernan's 
sons. The bill was as follows : 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 319 

John M'Mahon, Dr. to Thomas Hiffernan. 

£ s. d. 
2d Jan. ITT 6. Paid Rose Burne for your lodgings, one fort- 
night 17 

Paid T. Coney for dressing your hair, a fort- 
night 2 8£ 

Paid for your supper and whiskey 1 7£ 

Paid your washerwoman 2 2 

Paid for a pair of shoes 5 5 

Paid William Makers, the tailor, for turning your 

coat 4 10£ 

Paid for your supper and gin toddy 2 2 

Money lent 3 3 

Feb. 2. " Paid for a pair of stockings 3 3 

Paid the tailor for mendimg and seating a pair of 

black breeches 1 9 

Paid for supper and grog at Read's Inn, Tipperary 2 2 

Paid for two cravats 4 4 

Paid for two pocket handkerchiefs 3 3 

Paid Rose Burne another week's lodging 3 9£ 

Paid washerwoman 1 7£ 

Paid T. Coney, hair dresser, for comb, powder, 

and pomatum -. 1 7-£ 

Paid supper and whiskey 2 2 

Paid for mending your shirts and stockings ... . 1 7£ 

Paid for covering your hat 1 3 

Paid another week's lodging to Rose Burne 3 9| 

Paid for two neck handkerchiefs and two pocket 

handkerchiefs at Reilly's, in Tipperary 6 10£ 



£3 7 3£ 



On recovering froui the wounds inflicted by the chas- 
tisement which Mr. English had given him, a subscription 
was set on foot for M'Mahon by some gentlemen in the 
town of Tipperary, and with the sum obtained, about £20, 
M'Mahon departed for Dublin, where he volunteered in a 
regiment then on the eve of embarking for North America. 
Lord Eawdon, afterwards Earl Moira, was an officer in the 
same regiment, and he soon discovered M'Mahon's tact iu 



320 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

intrigue ; and being always found ready on every occasion 
to promote the designs of his lordship with particular 
ladies, and especially with Mrs. Doyle, he was rewarded 
with an ensigney, and subsequently he was appointed to 
the situation of deputy commissary. From the emoluments 
of this office he was enabled to purchase a lieutenancy and 
a company ; and at the close of the American war, in 1783, 
M'Mahon returned to England and settled at Bath, where 
he was introduced by Captain Hazard to a lady, whom he 
subsequently married, and settled at Ham Common, near 
Richmond. By accident, a certain illustrious individual, in 
one of his rides from Bushy Park, saw Mrs. M'Mahon, and 
became deeply enamored of her; an acquaintance was 
formed, and the royal Duke was a frequent visitor at the 
cottage of M'Mahon ; but it happened that, whenever the 
Duke called, some urgent business required the attendance 
of M'Mahon in town, where he spent his evenings at the 
Cocoa Tree with Mr. Butler Dan vers, Colonel Matthew, 
brother to Earl Landaff, and other gentlemen. By the 
interest of the Duke, M'Mahon was promoted to the brevet 
rank of major and lieutenant colonel $ and subsequently, by 
the joint influence of His Boyal Highness and Lord Moira, 
he was introduced to Carlton House, where, in a short time, 
he raised himself to be the companion and confidant of the 
heir apparent to the throne. 

We shall have again to refer to the actions of this man in 
some of the dark intrigues in which he was engaged on 
behalf of his royal master ; but we have, in the foregoing 
sketch, exhibited an extraordinary picture of the mutability 
of human affairs in the life of an individual commencing in 
the most abject poverty and closing in affluence and rank. 
On his entering Carlton House, his income as a halfpay 
officer was only £60 per annum, to which was added an 
annuity of £60 by right of his wife ; but he began to improve 
his finances, first, by disposing of tickets at fifteen shillings 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING-. 321 

and a pound each for viewing the interior of Carlton House; 
and, secondly, by procuring situations and titles, which 
were paid for according to the emolument to be received. 
In one instance, a gentleman applied to him to obtain a 
peerage for him, and £5,000 was offered. The offer was 
rejected, the sum was then doubled, and the peerage was 
obtained. When Lady M'Mahon was on ber death bed 
she bade Sir John open a particular drawer, and in it he 
found, to his great astonishment, £14,000 in Bank of Eng- 
land notes, obtained entirely by the exercise of her influence 
over some of the branches of the royal family, in the ob- 
taining of commissions, and other appointments under 
Government. In one instance, Eobert Donkin, who was 
a lieutenant in the Supplementary Militia, gave Mrs. 
M'Mahon £120 for an ensigncy in the line. He was killed 
at the battle of Maida. 

These appointments, made through the influence of Lady 
M'Mahon, although less notorious, were equally culpable 
as the infamous transactions of Mrs. Clarke* in her promis- 
cuous sale of army commissions. 

John M'Mahon was the principal agent in procuring Mrs. 
Jordan from Mr. Ford for the Duke of Clarence. 

It may be added that the whole family of the M'Mahons 
have been ennobled by the influence which Sir John 
M'Mahon possessed with the Prince Eegent. He succeeded 
in having his brother William made a serjeant of law in 
Ireland, and afterwards Master of the Rolls, to which a 
baronetcy was attached. His brother, Thomas, a captain 
in the army, was, by the same interest, made aide-de-camp 
to the Prince Regent, and raised to the rank of lieutenant- 
colonel. As Sir John M'Mahon knew he would not have 
any children, he succeeded, when a baronetcy was conferred 

* Mistress of the Duke of York. A complete history, with details never 
before published, of her connection with the Duke of York will be given 
in our work. 
14* 



322 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

upon him, for his great and signal services, in having the 
title to descend, at his decease, to his brother Thomas. 

From the private history of this prurient and parasitical 
courtier, we proceed to subjects of greater interest, and 
which possess a most decided influence on the general wel- 
fare of the country. The marriage of the Prince of Wales 
was soon followed by another of the male branches of the 
royal family, which, as connected with the succession to the 
crown, and bearing peculiarly upon the character not only 
of George III but of the illustrious subject of these 
memoirs, demands from us peculiar notice. We allude to 
the marriage of the Duke of Sussex with Lady Augusta 
Murray, the daughter of Lord Dunmore, at that time Gov- 
ernor of the Bahama Islands. It is not the least curious 
part in the history of the royal family of England, and 
especially of the Brunswick line, that almost all the mem- 
bers of it have been inclined to select their wives from 
amongst the commoners, on the fair and just principle that 
an English prince should have an English wife. It assur- 
edly was the baneful, narrow, and immoral policy of con- 
tracting state marriages which first warped, and ultimately 
shattered, the mind of George III. The father of that mon- 
arch, had he been left to follow his own free will, would 
have married a granddaughter of the great Duke of Marl- 
borough, and his son George III was deeply enamored of 
Lady Sarah Lennox. State policy, wielded by an ambitious 
and haughty mother, interfered, and snapped asunder and 
uprooted that honorable attachment 5 and, seeking in the 
petty courts of Germany for a consort, gave that first great 
shock to his feelings which led to deep and irreparable evils, 
not merely to the King but to the nation 5 for, during vari- 
ous j)eriods of longer and more frequent aberrations than 
his people knew of, the monarchical functions were exercised 
solely by his ministers, in concert with a Queen, among 
whose virtues the rights of the people were not numbered. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 323 

An honorable, although a mistaken, feeling of public 
duty had led George III to relinquish his intention of 
marrying Lady Sarah Lennox, and acknowledging her as 
his Queen consort; and the same principle led him to wish 
to control and guide his brother's choice ; and what was 
the result ? The deepest immorality, continued violations 
of the laws of hospitality, the seductions of the wives and 
daughters of the first of the English nobility ; and it also 
led to the commission of felony, as well as to innumerable 
acts of adultery. 

We may be considered as retrograding too far in enter- 
ing on the amours of George III, for, to a casual observer, 
they may be supposed to have little or no reference to the 
immediate subject of these memoirs ; but they will be found 
to be the foundation of those arbitrary and restrictive 
measures, which, in the subsequent marriages of the mem- 
bers of the royal family, and particularly in that of the 
Prince of Wales, were fraught with so much misery and 
danger to the vital interests of the country. Still there 
is something strongly paradoxical in the character of 
George III, who, being himself thwarted in his first and sin- 
cerest attachment, might be supposed to possess some 
sympathy with the other branches of his family, who, 
emancipating themselves from the trammels of state policy, 
bestowed their affections on the daughters of our nobility, 
and even on commoners, but which they were constrained 
to smother, to make way for a spurious and bastard love 
for some ugly, stinted member of a German Principality. 

If we regard the Marriage Act as operating on the 
children of George III, in how terrible and awful a situ- 
ation did that policy place the successor to the throne ! 
What a dreadful train of variegated misery did it entail 
upon his beloved niece, the daughter of his eldest sister, 
whom he selected as a bride for his eldest son ! The 
horrid and vile &uomaly in British jurisprudence, the Bill 



324 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

of Pains and Penalties, was its offspring, the effects of 
which no human eye can foresee, no human tongue can tell. 

The Duke of Sussex, by the operation of the Marriage 
Act, was obliged to live single. The union between 
him and Lady Augusta Murray took place at Koine, and, 
on her becoming pregnant, they returned to England, and 
a second marriage took place in December, 1793, in the 
Church of St. George, Hanover Square, according to the 
ceremonies of the Church of England. 

The empty cry of the expediency of preserving the suc- 
cession to the crown pure and unsullied was now set up ? 
and George III — he whose heart was still aching for the 
object of his first love — instituted a suit in the Arches 
Court of Canterbury to annul the marriage of the Duke of 
Sussex ; and it was declared by that Court that not only 
the marriage in England was null and void, but the one 
which had been contracted in Italy was also illegal and in- 
valid. 

It is high time in England to abolish the Marriage Act, 
by which so much crime and misery have been engen- 
dered in her royal family, and by which the first and 
noblest of British women can attain no higher connection 
with that family than to become a concubine to a British 
Prince ! An English writer says : 

u It is the sickening pride of the pauper princes of Ger- 
many which has entailed so heavy a calamity on this 
country as the Marriage Act. In the case of the Prince of 
Wales, who actually came to the altar as a married man, 
and who, as such, forswore himself in the presence of his 
Creator, generations yet unborn may have reason to rue the 
day when that inauspicious union was consummated. It 
brought the country, at one time, to the verge of actual 
rebellion — private and public tranquillity was destroyed — 
the fame of England, which stood the brightest and the 
fairest in the estimation of foreign nations, was shorn of its 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OP A KING-. 325 

splendor ; and the remains of the last and, it may be said, 
the most ill-fated of England's queens was huddled ont of 
the country amidst the din of arms and cries of vengeance 
on the heads of her murderers. n 

"It may not be unworthy of remark that the objections 
to the marriages of our royal family with any of the 
branches of our nobility has universally risen from the 
queen consorts. In the case of Frederick, Prince of Wales, 
Horace Walpole asserts, in his " Beminiscences," that the 
day was actually fixed for his secret marriage with Lady 
Diana Spencer, at the lodge belonging to the Duchess of 
Marlborough, in Windsor Great Park 5 and Sir Levett 
Hanson, so late as 1808, affirmed that he was assured by a 
gentleman who belonged to the Prince's household that 
Frederick, Prince of Wales, used often to tell Prince G-eorge 
that, as he was an English boy, he should, if he pleased, 
have an English wife ; observing that, by continually inter- 
marrying with German women, the royal family would con- 
tinue for ever germanized and distinct from the nation they 
governed. When it was urged by his courtiers that such 
marriages might prove prejudicial to the state, by conferring 
too great an ascendancy upon particular families, and there- 
by create jealousies and ill blood, he would reply, in a 
jocular way, by saying he should have girls and boys 
enough to connect the crown by blood with so many fami- 
lies that no such danger could arise ; and he would never 
force his sons or daughters to marry ; adding, if they should 
like the Germans best, let them take their choice $ but I 
would rather that they should all marry into English fami- 
lies, and then their descendants would be of British blood 
as well as Britons born. His consort, however, having 
been reared in a petty German Court, where th.e> people and 
the cattle were held in about equal estimation, and expected 
silently and submissively to yield to every mandate, heard 
with surprise and indignation these alarming doctrines, 



326 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

and energetically affirmed that, if she had power to prevent 
it, never should a child of hers marry into an English 
family.* The sentiments expressed by the father, at a later 
period of his life, sunk deep into the mind of his son George, 
and when, in 1756, his grandfather thought of marrying 
him to a princess of Brunswick, he expressed to his mother 
his strong aversion to the marriage, who, having other 
views, supported her son's determination without saying 
why, and there ended the incipient project." 

If we look to George III, before he had attained the age 
of twenty-one he had secretly made up his mind to adojjt 
his father's maxims, and select an English woman to share, 
as his consort, the English throne. His affections, as it is 
well known, settled upon Lady Sarah Lennox. The enam- 
ored youth was not slow in finding means to let the 
noble young damsel know of the pure and ardent affection 
his heart cherished towards her; and, if she deigned to 
listen to his suit, it was his intention, if he lived to ascend 
the throne, that she should share it with him. With a 
frankness of heart which reflects honor upon her memory, 
the amiable girl freely acknowledged that, had the rank of 
her lover been as far below hers as it was above, she could 
have met his advances without doing violence to her feel- 
ings; but, as the case stood, after having gratefully and 
humbly thanked the Prince for the proud distinction he 
had bestowed, and wishing him every happiness, she dared 
not act otherwise than decline his flattering offer. 

Having fully made up his mind on the subject, this 

* George III paid the Prince of Hesse Cassel a sum equal to seventy- 
million dollars of our currency for the Hessians he hired of that Prince to 
help put down Brother Jonathan a century ago. In this negotiation the 
Hessians were notoriously treated as cattle. The Palace of Wilhelmshohe 
recently made famous as the prison of Napoleon III, was constructed with a 
portion of the money. American travellers, in viewing this magnificent pile, 
may, and doubtless will regard it with additional interest when they re- 
member iiu6 fact. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 327 

graceful denial only fanned the intense passion he felt, and 
which, perhaps, he did not wish to control ; and so power- 
ful were its effects that it wrought a sudden and marked 
change in his pursuits. His dogs, his horses, his field sports 
were for a time wholly neglected, till upon the reiterated 
assurances of the resolution he had long formed of marry- 
ing a British lady, and that he would rather relinquish the 
throne than his hope of obtaining her for his bride, she can- 
celled the negative previously given, and they interchanged 
vows of love and constancy. Thus when his mind was' 
released from the racking anguish of suspense, and he was 
received as a favored lover, the youthful Prince resumed 
his former sports, though with diminished ardor, for the 
fair Lennox revelled in his virtuous bosom the queen of 
his soul — the sole object of his youthful love. 

Sir Levett Hanson speaks of these interesting Court anec- 
dotes as sober facts, and he smiled at the idea that the 
reigning family could have been disgraced by the heir 
apparent marrying the daughter of an English peer ; whilst 
in the most full and positive terms he affirmed that the 
Duke of Richmond, her father, had no knowledge of nor 
participation in this amour ; stating that a cousin of her 
mother's was governess to Lady Sarah, and also her confi- 
dant; and that her conduct was marked by the strictest 
propriety and decorum in every stage of the transaction, 
when her hopes were lifted high, and an imperial crown 
seemed impending over her head, and when, by a cruel 
reverse, the flattering prospect suddenly vanished, and love 
was made an offering to state policy. 

Beset on every side with interested observers, it must 
have been a matter of great difficulty for the Prince to have 
carried on this intercourse undiscovered; yet this was 
accomplished through the medium of his brother Edward, 
and the lovers frequently met at the country seat of a lady 
of rank, which stood in the track of the Prince's rustic 



328 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

excursions. During these stolen interviews, which could 
not last long, the lover acquainted his intended bride that 
he neither had nor should consult any of his courtiers ; but, 
deferring the marriage until he had ascended the throne, 
he would plead his father's promise, claim his natural 
right to select his partner for life, and throw himself upon 
the generosity of his people for support and approbation.* 

We may be considered as digressing from the avowed 
subject of these memoirs in thus entering into the partic- 
ulars of the amour of George III ; but, in the first place, 
they are not generally known, and, in the second, they 
serve to complete the odious picture of the impolicy of state 
marriages, and the baneful consequences which result from 
them to the general interests of the country. The mar- 
riage of the Prince of Wales with Caroline of Brunswick 
may be regarded as the apex of this unnatural system 5 and 
the exposition of the evils with which such marriages are 
accompanied may sooner or later be the means of attract- 
ing the notice of the Legislature, and the result may be the 
abolition of an act which now stands as a disgrace in the 
archives of one of the most liberal and enlightened nations 
of the world. 

The chief household spy of the Princess Dowager of Wales 
was Mr. Creset, who was also her private secretary ; and he 
was the person who, suspecting Prince George's visits to 

the Countess of were connected with some intrigue, 

had the credit of having discovered the amatory intercourse 
and correspondence which, before he reflected how much 
better a hand of that discovery he might have made by 

* Connected with this amour of his father for Lady Sarah Lennox is a 
"witticism of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, who, on being informed 
that his father, whilst perambulating one of his farms in the vicinity of 
Windsor Great Park, had been pursued by one of the oxen which were graz- 
ing the fields, "I am sorry for it," said the Prince, " but it is not the. first 
time that my father has been in danger from a Lean ox." 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 329 

concealing it from all except the lovers, lie babbled out to 
his inquisitive mistress. The Princess Dowager was affected 
by this discovery no less powerfully than if she had been 
apprised of the sudden death of her eldest son. She had 
been for some time suspicious that the Prince was deeply 
engaged in an amour, but her pride repelled the idea thai 
he had already plighted his faith to raise an English lady 
to be the partner of his throne. Rage, indignation, scorn, 
dismay, each by turns assailed her agitated bosom, yet her 
usual caution did not forsake her ; and though constrained 
forbearance cost her a severe pang, the Princess despatched 
Oreset to summon the Earl of Butevto her presence before 
she ventured upon any attempt to avert a blow alike fatal 
to all her ambitious projects, and intolerably humiliating to 
her haughty mind. 

Lord Bute was scarcely less surprised than the Princess, 
nor less alarmed. He saw all the dangers which sur- 
rounded them, and taught the mother, bursting with pas- 
sion, the necessity of subduing her feelings, and having 
recourse to sap and mine to effect that purpose for which he 
expressed his fullest confidence that all angry remonstrance 
would utterly fail. Convinced by his reasoning, and from 
habit submissive to opinions so gracefully and eloquently 
expressed, the Princess yielded to his better counsels, 
nothing doubting his fidelity or discretion; and thus, 
whilst the youthful lovers, lulled in a false security, enjoyed 
their present happiness, and confidently looked forward to 
a prosperous issue to their virtuous wishes, silently but rap- 
idly were the elements of that storm accumulating which 
was destined to sever their fond hearts, and annihilate 
every enraptured vision of future bliss in which they were 
indulging. 

Never at loss for expedients to bring about any greatly 
desired end, the Earl of Bute called into action a few 
selected noblemen and ladies upon whose prutfgfice he 



330 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

could rely, to whom, partially and cautiously, he explained 
the uneasiness of the Princess Dowager, on account of her 
eldest son's devotion to Lady Sarah Lennox, and her maternal 
fears lest the amour should end in the dishonor of the young 
damsel j not once alluding to the Prince having pledged his 
faith to the fair object of his love, and destined her to be 
his consort, from the fear that it should counteract their 
own projects, and raise up auxiliaries for the lovers where 
she hoped to create enemies. 

It may be necessary to carry in remembrance the leading 
points of this amour, iu order to properly understand the 
import of many passages in the dialogue between the 
Prince of Wales and his illustrious father, inserted in a 
subsequent part of this work, and which has been obtained 
by the kindness of a gentleman who was at the time secre- 
tary to the Earl of Moira, who was himself present at the 
royal interview. 

To the credit of the Prince and his beloved, so great had 
been their discretion and self-command, that no one, except 
the few already alluded to, had the least idea of their 
amour. At the instigation of the Earl of Bute, the Duke 
of Eichmond was suddenly visited by a succession of noble 
guests, whose presence occupied too much of Lady Sarah's 
time to permit of her meeting her royal lover as usual. 
The irintercourse was, in consequence, epistolary $ and, as 
neither of them had the smallest mistrust that their secret 
passion was known to the Princess, they consoled each 
other in the pleasing illusion that the time for secrecy and 
constraint would shortly terminate. But when visit after 
visit was proposed, and Lady Sarah found herself insensi- 
bly, as it were, removed farther and farther from her lover, 
dark fears unbidden obtruded on her mind ; and although 
she could not perceive any visible traces of remote agency 
or secret management, yet the result of the different domes- 
tic movements alarmed her fears, and suggested danger, 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 331 

without affording any clue to its source, or any means of 
prevention. 

During this period the lovers were almost wholly debar- 
red from correspondence ; and the Prince was remarkably 
dejected, neglected his favorite animals, and his rural sports, 
and sought out solitude, wherein perhaps to give greater 
scope to his perturbed feelings unobserved. 

Sir Levett Hanson stated that neither the Princess nor 
Lord Bute thought it advisable to intercept the letters 
which passed between the lovers. " It was not," said he, 
" any sentiment of delicacy by which they were deterred, 
but the dread of irreparably offending the noble minded 
youth, and hurrying him to the consummation of the mar- 
riage they wrought so earnestly to avert." Such was the 
state of affairs when the death of George II took place ; 
soon after which event, various of his ministers and coun- 
cillors strongly urged the young monarch to take a consort; 
but neither his mother nor the Earl of Bute were foremost 
to recommend this measure. Finding himself thus pressed, 
the King mentioned his father's promise to Lord Bute, and 
asked him if he conceived any serious injury was likely to ac- 
crue to the state if he were to act as his parent had advised, 
and take an English lady for his bride. The dissembler ap- 
peared as if suddenly overwhelmed by the deepest grief and 
surprise. After a solemn pause, he told his sovereign, except 
a recantation of his faith, he could not call to mind any act so 
full of disastrous consequences as that to which he had al- 
luded. Impatient of further dissimulation, the King commu- 
nicated to the Earl the deep affection he cherished towards 
Lady Sarah Lennox, the solemn engagement into which he 
had entered, and his fixed determination to exercise that 
natural right which the meanest of his subjects possessed, 
and select his wife himself. 

The cautious politician saw clearly that everything 
might be lost by illtimed opposition; and, finding that, 



332 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

piqued by the long continued silence of Lady Sarah, the 
King had not taken any decisive step since the death of 
the old King, all he ventured to ask of the young mon- 
arch was, to pause a given time before he committed him- 
self irrevocably $ protesting with many well dissembled 
tokens of affectionate zeal, that if, at the end of that 
period, His Majesty's will should remain the same, that he 
should use all his interest to soothe the public mind, and 
prepare his mother for a stroke which he pretended might 
break her heart. This was touching a chord that vibrated 
through every nerve ; the young Prince turned pale, and 
said: "It is a sad alternative in which I am placed 5 the 
crown is not worth the sacrifice I am called upon to make. 
You say my mother's heart will break if I marry Lady 
Lennox ; and so intensely do I love that lady, sir, that I 
fear my mind would not be able to bear up against the 
shock of the disappointment. My mother's aversion is not 
rational, and I do not perceive that she ought to require 
the sacrifice at my hands." As he spoke, his voice fal- 
tered, and tears trickled down his cheeks. At last, the 
distressed lover gave his word as required, and, during 
that interval, the pathetic intreaties and admonitions of 
the Princess Dowager, powerfully backed by the sedate 
and dignified expostulations of Lord Bute, developing, 
according to old state maxims, the necessity there was, if 
he aimed at the conscientious discharge of his public duty, 
as a wise and virtuous monarch, to sacrifice his passions to 
the safety of his empire, induced him to waver ; and then 
his mother and his private monitor made such forcible 
appeals to his pride and generosity, that the young Prince, 
agreeing to be guided by their counsels, gave them his 
word of honor that, whatever it might cost him, he would 
make the sacrifice required. He kept that word, although 
his heart was wrung with anguish. He passed, as it was 
said, a week in solitude, striving to master his feelings and 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 333 

yield up his love. The letter he wrote to Lady Sarah 
Lennox was represented by Sir Levett Hanson as teeming 
with the finest touches of passion. He candidly stated all 
that had occurred, and assured her that no considerations 
whatever had the least influence upon his decision except 
his sense of public duty, and his moral conviction that, 
however painful the sacrifice demanded, it would be dis- 
honorable in him to hesitate. In the interval, Lady 
Sarah's confidential friend, a maternal relation to Sir 
Levett, either by design or chance, obtained possession of 
the letter written by Lord Bute, the contents of which, 
though guardedly composed, and the meaning obscurely 
expressed, gave the innocent victim of his machinations a 
full comprehension of the whole scheme. The shock was 
great, but a greater yet remained. This was the affecting 
letter alluded to, written by the King, and sent to her by 
a gentleman of his Court, on whose honor and delicacy he 
relied. Although the blow was tempered by all that was 
tender and affectionate in language, and noble in senti- 
ment, and offered a brother's love, where her fondest 
wishes-yet combined with her undoubted claims, it still fell 
dreadfully heavy. The health of the amiable girl sunk 
under the pressure, but time nnd reflection had their usual 
influence ; and after a few month's seclusion, Lady Sarah 
Lennox was able, not only to forgive the King, but even to 
assist at his marriage with another ; not so regarding Lord 
Bute and the Princess Dowager, towards whom she felt 
the most intense hatred. The impression produced on the 
mind of the King was answerable to the greatness of the 
love he had cherished towards her, and gave new poign- 
ancy to his sorrows. 

Infinitely to the credit of Lady Lennox, although she had 
detected the secret agency of Lord Bute and the Princess 
Dowager, she concealed her knowledge of their delin- 
quency, that she might not wound the bosom of her royal 



334 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

lover, whom she resigned in a manner becoming a woman 
worthy to have been his bride. After the death of the 
Princess Dowager of Wales, the veil was withdrawn, and 
the whole of the secret machinery exposed by which the 
projected marriage had been prevented. 

Such was the account given by Sir Levett Hanson of the 
deep rooted attachment of the King ; to the disappointment 
of which passion he attributed, not only the partial flashes 
of disordered intellect, which, in less than a year after his 
marriage, are said to have been perceptible to the Queen 
and his nearest attendants, but also that profound piety 
and unfeigned reliance on the consolations of religion by 
which he was henceforth so eminently distinguished. 

We are now about to enter upon the recital of one of the 
most extraordinary transactions which marked the present 
era, and the whole of which had its foundation in the pecu- 
niary embarrassments of the Prince of Wales and Lord 
Moira. It forms one of the most striking incidents in the 
life of this unprincipled man, that during the time when he 
was Eegent of the country, a naval officer, who was an 
ornament to his country and to his profession, was prose- 
cuted and punished for the commission of an act of which 
the Prince himself, though not overtly, and one of his min- 
isters, had actually been guilty, for the express purpose of 
providing for those exigencies which the extravagance and 
profusion of a Court had caused. At the time of its occur- 
rence various versions were given of the transaction, 
according to the political bias or the prejudices of the indi- 
viduals, but the materials have been furnished to us exclu- 
sively, by which we are enabled to clear up the mystery in 
which it has hitherto been enveloped, and to represent the 
affair in its genuine colors, without regard to the noble 
individuals whom it may impeach, or the stain which it may 
leave upon their character.* In writing this u private life," 

* Huish's Memoirs, George IV, vol. 1, page 4=22. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 335 

we have avoided all political matter as far as was possible 5 
but in order, however, to render it a connected narrative, 
and for the better understanding of the transaction we are 
about to relate, it will be necessary to take a view of the 
British ministry as it stood in the year 1806, although the 
circumstances originally took place about the period of 
which we are now writing, in the year 1796, and were in 
operation as long as Lord Moira remained in office. 

The accession of Mr. Fox to power, in the year 1806, 
after so long an interval of ministerial duties, brought on a 
coalition of interests between him and ■ many members of 
the then recent Administration, of which, previous to his 
death, Mr. Pitt was the head. Lord Grenville became 
First Lord of the Treasury j Lord Spencer, First Lord of 
the Admiralty 5 Earl Moira> Master General of the Ordi- 
nance ; and Mr. Fox, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. 
The first act of the new Administration was to open a nego- 
tiation with France, the present ambassador now in Eng- 
land, Talleyrand, enjoying the same station under Napoleon 
Bonaparte as Mr. Fox in England. Lord Lauderdale, who 
had always adhered to the "Whigs, and manifested what 
would be now called ultra liberal principles, was sent to 
Paris as a plenipotentiary on behalf of England, and con- 
tinued to conduct a vacillating negotiation until it termi- 
nated in complete failure. 

During the progress of this negotiation, the fluctuation in 
the funds indicated that some parties were concerned in the 
operations, who must have had access to sources of infor- 
mation of an exclusive nature ; and at last the indiscretion 
of these parties proceeded so far as to whisper the name of 
Lord Moira, a Cabinet minister, as the party on whose 
authority these transactions rested. A well known banker 
at the west end of the town and some members of the Stock 
Exchange, and Messrs. Walsh and Nesbitt, with a noted 
banker in Lombard street, were pretended to be, and actu- 



336 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

ally were, in communication with St. James' place, directly 
or indirectly, where Lord Moira resided. It was also gen- 
erally asserted that the Prince of Wales, who had previously 
contracted the most serious obligations to Lord Moira, was 
indirectly cognizant of the speculations, and gave them his 
sanction, as a source to enable Lord Moira to provide for the 
exigencies for which they were naturally bound to provide. 
It was also found, on referring to the several stages of the 
negotiation, and comparing the several documents laid 
before Parliament, that the changes and fluctuations in the 
prices of the funds, for a rise or a fall, corresponded with 
the date of good or ill news, as traceable in the Government 
despatches. 

For a long time, however, previous to this period, that 
is about the year 1796, the connection of Lord Moira with 
the pecuniary distresses of the Prince was publicly known, 
the attempts of his lordship to raise money on his own 
private security, and that of his agents, for the accommoda- 
tion of the Prince $ wherever a channel presented itself by 
which an instantaneous supply could be obtained, it was 
immediately taken advantage of, no matter how high or 
exorbitant were the terms which were asked. For a long 
time the fact was well known that the credit of Carlton 
House was reduced to the lowest ebb 3 and that Lord 
Moira's paper was at such a ruinous discount as must have 
exhausted and absorbed the revenues of an empire. If 
two hundred pounds could be obtained upon a bill of one 
thousand^ and the remainder in a mass of useless lumber, 
which was again disposed of at a loss of three or four 
hundred per cent, (this beats Wall street shaving all to 
pieces,) it was greedily snapped at ; and, in many instances, 
the bills coming due, were renewed at a similarly ruinous 
rate. However, the favor of the Prince, the hopes of his 
succession to power, the urbanity of the noble lord himself, 
and the facile nature of his temper, formed a combination 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 337 

around him of the ambitious and the selfish, and all the 
parasites who administer to the wants and cravings of an 
inordinate Court, for the purpose of supporting his pecu- 
niary views, especially as they were well aware that, 
although the sums required were ostensibly for the use of 
Lord Moira, yet that they were in reality destined to 
relieve the Prince of Wales from the pressing embarrass- 
ments which every day thickened upon him. Thus, on one 
occasion, Walsh and Kesbitt advanced Lord Moira £5,000, 
and bankers and speculators of all descriptions pawned 
their credit to preserve and supply the influence and wants 
of a Court, which subsisted by no other means than what 
such persons could raise at an extravagant interest, and 
which ended in the ruin of many of them, and in one 
instance of the most deliberate suicide. The latter was the 
case with the Eeverend George Henry Glass, a man of 
voluptuous habits, of considerable talents and address, 
and one of the chaplains ot the Prince of Wales. He 
was rector of Hanwell in Middlesex, and, setting aside 
his clerical character, a fitter person, perhaps, could not 
have been selected to carry on the pecuniary negotiations 
of the Prince and his coequal, Lord Moira, in extravagance 
and thoughtlessness. Mr. Glass became one of the most 
responsible agents of Lord Moira in the city $ through him 
new channels of accommodation were opened, a variety of 
speculations were entered into, some of which succeeded, 
and enabled the besieged party in Carton House to hold 
out against the attacks of the infuriated creditors, by 
paying a small portion of their demands, with positive 
promises that ere long the whole should be liquidated. 

It was the sagacity of Mr. Charles (to whom we acknowl- 
edge our obligations for the particulars of these transac- 
tions, which have never before been presented to the 
public eye,) or rather his attachment to Mr. Fox, that 
exposed and overthrew all that might have been antici- 

15 



338" THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

pated from some of the intrigues which were then carrying 
on, in which principle and honor had no share, and which 
went to undermine the credit and respectability of the first 
commercial establishment in the Avorld. 

Mr. Charles was at that time a clerk in the Bank, and 
the principal in a considerable mercantile establishment in 
the Old Jewry. He had for a long time observed the 
operations which were carrying on in the funds, and he 
communicated to several of his xmvate friends his opinion 
of those transactions. The parties known to belong to 
the junta of Carlton House were regarded as the barom- 
eter of the value of the funds ; and so correct in general 
was their information of those events which might occasion 
a rise or fall, that a suspicion was entertained that such 
information could only be acquired from one in the imme- 
diate confidence of Government, and their motions were 
subsequently narrowly watched by all those speculators 
who deal in time bargains, and who are always on the alert 
to take advantage of any fluctuation in the jmblic securi- 
ties. Thus, when the persons in immediate communication 
with Lord Moira found themselves baffled by the adverse 
progress of the negotiations at Paris, they endeavored to 
support their falling credit with the name of that noble- 
man. The fact of the speculation in the funds was reiterated 

by Mr. M , the banker in Lombard street 5 and, at last, 

it became so public, that the Whig party of the Administra- 
tion was openly charged by the press as betraying the 
secrets of Government for corrupt and personal advantages. 
The known attachment of Mr. Charles to Mr. Fox's prin- 
ciples no longer permitted hLn to conceal his disgust, and 
a private communication was made to that minister, at the 
moment when the disorders of his Constitution began to 
prognosticate that disease, which shortly after consigned 
him, with an imperishable name, to the records of a nation's 
veneration. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 339 

In consequence of the critical situation of Mr. Fox, Sir 
Francis Tincent, Ms private secretary, transferred the 
letter which Mr. Charles had written to Mr. Fox into the 
hands of Lord Grenville, who, on the receipt of it, sent for 
Mr. Charles to Downing street, where an interview took 
place in the presence of Lord Spencer. At this meeting, 
Mr. Charles — by the advice of Mr. Const, since Chair- 
man of the Quarter Sessions for Middlesex — declined to 
communicate in the presence of a third person, when he 
was assured by Lord Grenville that Earl Spencer was only 
called upon to be present, so that Lord Moira might be 
satisfied with the proceedings which might take place 
during the meeting -, but the fiat justitia wanted the ruat 
in ccelum 7 and Mr. Charles was brought to trial, on the 
joint affidavit of the two noble lords, for a gross and un- 
warrantable libel. 

If any event could prove the divided state of the Cabinet, 
and the intrigues of the Tories connected with or employed 
by the Administration, this case would settle the dispute ; 
for, as to the incident in itself, obscure as the individual 
concerned in the charge may be, and slight as the im- 
putation upon Lord Moira may be, to whom a guilty 
participation in the alleged transaction was never imputed, 
yet the charge, in the hands of the Tory portion of the 
Administration, was vituperated by the then organ of 
Government, the Times newspaper ; the conversation which 
took place in jmvate in part disclosed, and the contents 
of the letter itself published, though held by the two 
ministers present, Lords Grenville and Spencer, as, with- 
out prejudice, a confidential communication between the 
individuals named. Lord Moira, of course, had no alter- 
native but to proceed with the prosecution, or lose his seat 
in the Cabinet. 

No doubt can exist of the motives which influenced 
these disclosures, after the understanding between Mr. 



340 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

Charles and the noble lords alluded to ; and, in fact, Lord 
Grenville, during the several interviews which took place 
on the subject, made a great parade of his impartiality, 
and of his reluctance to proceed against the writer of the 
letter, who, in his turn, made the most frank communi- 
cation of all he knew of the affair, without concealing 
the slightest circumstance which could fix the blame on 
the proper shoulders, rather desiring the acquittal of Lord 
Moira than his condemnation. Mr. Charles was, however, 
advised to defend the action by those who knew the ac- 
curacy of his information, and for some time he consid- 
ered that no further notice would be taken of it in a legal 
sense. He was, however, ultimately indicted for the 
libel 5 and the law officers of the crown, Sir Yicary 
Gibbs and Sir William Garrow, then Attorney and Soli- 
citor General, conducted the prosecution, ex-officio, against 
him. 

Nothing more strongly developes the nature of minis- 
terial responsibility than this j)rosecution ; nothing ex- 
poses more fully the secret constructions of a cabinet 
not actually agreeable to the crown. For many years Mr. 
Fox had been a stranger to office. On the death, and, it is 
believed, on the recommendation of Mr. Pitt, he was called 
into power, and office was divided, so as to balance the 
opinions- of men who could only conduct the business of 
the nation to any advantage by a cordial and zealous 
cooperation with each other. Such, however, were the 
difficulties felt on the first formation of this Administration 
that an expedient was hit upon which compromised the 
principles of Mr. Fox, by the introduction of Lord Ellen- 
borough into that Cabinet as a legal arbitrator of political 
differences ; and it was by his direction that the prosecu- 
tion against Mr. Charles was undertaken. 

It appears, however, that a fresh light broke on a sud- 
den on the minds of the projectors of this prosecution, 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OP A KING. 341 

and it was strongly suspected that it came from " the 
rising sun," as some very well founded fears were enter- 
tained in that quarter that, in the course of the trial, 
certain matters might be disclosed which would not con- 
tribute to conciliate the affections of the Euglish people 
whose minds were already inflamed with reports of certain 
proceedings at Carlton House, in respect to the Princess of 
Wales and other ladies connected with that establishment ; 
and, therefore, it was wisely considered the times were by 
no means auspicious for any public proceedings which had 
any reference to the affairs of the Prince, the public hav- 
ing twice paid his debts, and still found him in a state of 
comparative insolvency. A few days before the trial was 
to come on, the proceedings were arranged with Mr. 
Charles by Messrs. Lowden and Peyter, of Gray's Inn — 
judgment was suffered to go by default — and the whole 
affair was settled in court, on Mr. Charles entering into his 
own recognizance, the same having been previously ad- 
justed at Sir William Garrow's, in the presence of Lord 
Moira, who then frankly confessed the dangerous con- 
spiracy of professed friends, and complimented Mr. Charles 
on the honorable frankness which he had evinced through 
the whole of this delicate affair. " Certainly," said Sir 
William Garrow, " the conduct of Mr. Charles has been 
very rash; but the discoveries which you have made will 
operate to the renunciation of such agencies in future which 
have led your lordship into your present difficulties.' 7 

It is, however, melancholy to reflect that this advice was 
thrown away upon his lordship. A most extraordinary 
degree of infatuation appeared to have taken possession of 
his mind, and his unhappy attachment to the Prince only 
led him into further errors, as in the case of the Queen, 
from the public obloquy of which he was only rescued by 
the gift of the most splendid government belonging to the 
crown ; but which, so far from liberating him from his 



342 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

pecuniary embarrassments, contributed to augment them, 
which afterwards involved him with the Messrs. Palmers, 
suspended the usual pension at the India House, and sent 
him almost as an exile from his country to die at Malta, 
leaving a name, endeared to all the social virtues, to the 
malignity of his enemies, and which even the courage and 
generosity of friends could not reestablish. 

Perhaps there was no monarch to whom the Prince of 
Wales bore a stronger resemblance than to Louis XV of 
France. He had his pare aux cerfs, of which Madame 
Main tenon was the ranger, with a number of other inferior 
beauties, to gratify the passions of the amorous monarch. 
Our George IV was less a sensualist than a voluptuary, 
although his appetite for a variety of women was equally 
boundless and extravagant. In France it was the fashion 
of the courtiers to supply the royal harem with their own 
children, in order to vary the pleasures of the monarch. 
In England it had been the custom to ransack the abodes 
of indigent virtue for victims, or to corrupt the confidence 
of wedded life, to administer to the licentious pleasures of 
the King. In France the vices of the Court were discip- 
lined by the craft of the priest and the hypocrisy of the 
devotee. In England the creatures of the Court toiled in 
their nefarious occupations, and boasted publicly of their 
success over the innocent, the gay, and the unsuspecting, 
whom they had hunted into their snares. These persons, 
composed of parasites, discarded mistresses, and candi- 
dates for Court favor, had their several rendezvous and 
disguises to fascinate, deceive, and allure the unwary. All 
the obligations of morality were relaxed or broken down 
by the example of the Court and the licentiousness of 
its followers ; the throne was surrounded by courtesans and 
flatterers, and access denied to all without the sanction of 
the favorite concubine of the day.* 

* Huish's Memoirs. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 343 

But the conduct of the Prince matured, unsatisfactorily, 
the power of the King, who adopted undisguisedly the 
political and moral principles of the worst sovereigns of the 
house of Capet. Thence seduction was conducted sys- 
tematically by agents, both male and female, instructed and 
trained for the purpose, and of such various ranks and 
grades as might obtain for them an introduction to every 
family, high or low, public or private, where a beautiful 
victim presented herself, or where the sacred ties of matri- 
mony could be broken, by estranging the wife from the 
affection of her husband, and leading her into scenes where 
her ruin was to be accomplished. 

The following will show that the portrait which we have 
drawu of the vice and licentiousness of the Court of Carlton 
House is not too highly colored, and it must be a subject of 
deep regret to those who are acquainted with the powerful 
effect which example possesses over the morality of society 
in general, that the very highest personages in the realm 
should, in their conduct, have exhibited a depth of deprav- 
ity unparalleled, perhaps, in any ancient or modern Court 
of Europe. 

It was about this time that Miss Bolton became a public 
favorite, and, as usual with persons on the stage, she 
attracted the attention of some young men of fashion, nor 
was the Prince of Wales indifferent to that interesting 
naivete which was the peculiar characteristic of her acting. 
Miss Bolton was, however, too well guarded by her respect- 
able mother, and too serious and circumspect in her own 
deportment, to run into the snare which was laid for her. 
The usual prelude to negotiations of this nature, such as 
presents of diamond necklaces, was punctually adhered to 
in this instance, but it failed of the desired effect ; for every 
act that was committed, which appeared to have the slight- 
est reference to the conquest of her virtue, was repulsed 
with an indignation which would have deterred the major- 



344 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

ity of individuals from proceeding any further in the 
attempt, and have induced them to relinquish it as a hope- 
less task. Not so, however, the panderers of the Prince 5 with 
every rebuff, with every indication of the. most determined 
spirit to repel all their attempts, their exertions appeared 
to increase, their plans were distinguished by deeper strat- 
agem and artifice, their whole conduct more strongly marked 
by an apparent acquiescence to her will, at the same time 
that they were concocting their diabolical schemes, by 
which this amiable girl was to be numbered amongst those 
unfortunate victims who had already fallen a prey to the 
inordinate appetite of his passions. It would scarcely be 
deemed credible that the human mind could exhibit such an 
extraordinary degree of ingenuity in the devising of a 
scheme for the accomplishment of the ruin of female virtue 
as was displayed in this instance 5 and strong and firm, 
indeed, must have been that virtue which could have 
escaped uninjured through so severe an ordeal, in the prog- 
ress of which libertinism assumed the mask of philan- 
thropy and humanity, and treachery put on the garb of 
friendship and disinterestedness. Whatever part the male 
panderers of the Prince may have acted in this affair, it was 
no more than could be expected from the base servility of 
their characters, and their total disregard for every tie of 
morality and virtue ; but that beings could be found, calling 
themselves women, and bearing the honorable title of wives 
and mothers, to aid and abet the infamous seducers in their 
designs, is a foul blot in human nature, and makes the heart 
sicken with hatred and disgust whenever their names are 
mentioned. 

The theatrical talents of Miss Bolton, her graceful and 
elegant person, and, above all, the high character which she 
enjoyed of an unsullied reputation, so rare and difficult to 
obtain and maintain in the profession which Miss Bolton 
had adopted, acquired for her the estimation of many good 



_^ THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 345 

and worthy people, who watched over her with that affec- 
tion and care which the preservation of her virtue de- 
manded, and on which they knew the success of her future 
life depended. It required a dragon to watch the Hesperian 
fruit, but it was lulled to sleep and the fruit was gathered ; 
and to that Providence which, in an unexpected moment, 
sends the wished for relief must be attributed the salva- 
tion of Miss Bolton from the ruin which awaited her. 

Having obtained a temporary engagement from the man- 
ager of the Windsor Theatre, Miss Bolton repaired to that 
place, and amongst the many aspirants for her acquaint- 
ance was a Mrs. Hall, or rather the chere amie of Mr. Sykes, 
but then the reputed wife of Captain Paine. Miss Bolton 
was a total stranger to the character of Mrs. Hall, and see- 
ing that she was visited and caressed by certain people of 
haut ton, Miss B. considered that no reflection could be cast 
upon her character by associating with her. Mrs. Hall was 
a woman whose intercourse with the world had enabled her 
to acquire that ease and freedom of manners which force 
their way so imperceptiby on the unsuspecting heart, and 
she sopn acquired such an ascendency over her young friend 
as could not fail to be dangerous when exercised by an in- 
triguing woman. The circumstance of Mrs. Hall being the 
intimate acquaintance of Miss Bolton was soon made public, 
and the panderers of the Prince saw in that circumstance 
the consummation of all their designs. A private negotia- 
tion was entered into with Mrs. Hall, and everything pre- 
sented an early prospect of success. In the meantime, this 
woman ingratiated herself deeper and deeper in the good 
opinion of Miss Bolton ; and on the latter leaving Windsor 
to resume her professional duties in town, Mrs. Hall pro- 
posed to return with her, and it was finally agreed that she 
should take up her abode with the family, and on such 
terms as, at that time of day, would aid Miss Bolton's 
exemplary endeavors to maintain her family. 

15* 



346 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

Iu order, however, to render this narrative perfectly 
intelligible, it will be necessary to remark that, in the accep- 
tation of the world, Mrs. Hall was considered as Mrs. Paine, 
the wife of Captain Paine ; but the name of Hall was that 
by which she was known as the chere amie of Mr. Sykes, 
and at a certain celebrated brothel which was then kept in 
Duke street, St. James'. This expensive establishment was 
once maintained by six ladies, all of a particular form and 
make, combining the embonpoint with extreme elegance of 
carriage, and the most perfect symmetry of shape. Of this 
nucleus of feminine beauty Mrs. Hall was by no means the 
least conspicuous member; and amongst the few select 
individuals who were admitted into this voluptuous harem 
was the gentleman to whom we are indebted for these inter- 
esting anecdotes, and who was fortunately the individual 
who first put Miss Bolton's family on their guard in respect- 
to the character of their new associate. 

Being on intimate terms with the Bolton family, this gen- 
tleman, on the arrival of Miss Bolton in Long Acre, pro- 
ceeded to pay his respects to her, and on entering the 
drawing room, to his infinite astonishment, he was intro- 
duced to Mrs. Paine, in whom he immediately recognized 
the Mrs. Hall, of Duke street, and consequently a most im- 
proper inmate for the house of Mr. Bolton. He hesitated 
not a moment to caution that gentleman against his new 
acquaintance, as a dangerous companion for his daughter, 
especially as Mrs. Paine was soon visited by General F. 
Turner and Colonel M'Mahon, both persons intimately con- 
cerned in promoting the pleasures of Carlton House, and in 
procuring gratifications for their royal master. The intrigue 
continued to progress agreeably to the wishes of Mrs. Hall, 
when a trifling incident disturbed and finally crushed the 
attempt meditated against the virtue of Miss Bolton. 

Among those which the good sense and virtue of this 
lady had attached to her was the late Dr. Blackborough, 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 347 

and to whose protection she owed her introduction to many 
persons of worth and character in the fashionable world. 
It was fortunate that it was so, as Miss Bolton certainly 
owed her disentanglement to his advice and fortunate inter- 
position on the following occasion. At this period, a noted 
milliner, of the name of Brace, resided in Pall Mall, whose 
house was the resort of the leading fashionables of the day, 
and many repaired to it for very different purposes than the 
adjustment of their dress. This house was so situated that 
it ran back into St. James' square, in which it formed at that 
time No. 10, but which, for very obvious reasons, has since 
been altered. At this house, in St. James' square, a person 
of the name of Watson was supposed to keep a faro table, 
and therefore the frequent egress and ingress of some of the 
highest noblemen of the country excited very little sur- 
prise ; but the house was in reality a place of assignation — 
the lady entering by the house in Pali Mall, the gentleman 
by that in St. James' square. 

Perhaps no woman was better qualified for the task she 
had undertaken than Mrs. Hall. The blandishment of her 
manners, her thorough acquaintance with the forms of 
society, her fashionable exterior, flexibility of mind, and 
consummate tact in applying those accomplishments to 
fascinate and secure her victim, who then can wonder 
at the infatuation which Miss Bolton manifested in her 
conduct with this woman % In the meantime the visits 
of M'Mahon became more frequent; presents succeeded 
presents, and she was now told of the unalterable love which 
the heir apparent to the Crown had imbibed for her. The 
Prince, was, it is true, a married man, but his separation 
from his wife had taken place, and, therefore, no act of 
matrimonial infidelity could be pleaded against him. 

Miss Bolton was now about to appear at the theatre in a 
new character, and this occasion was seized upon to con- 
summate her ruin j a most splendid dress was to be pro- 



348 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

vided for her by her secret lover, such as had never before 
been seen on a British stage. The first step to accomplish 
the ruin of a female is to excite her vanity — it is the most 
successful instrument that can be used — and, in the present 
instance, was very near producing the wished for effect. 
The person employed to make this superb dress waFMrs. 
Brace, and an hour was appointed when she was to make 
her appearance to try it on. At this critical hour Dr. 
Blackborough was passing from St. James' square into Pall 
Mall, when he observed the Prince of Wales entering the 
house No. 10 ; but the circumstance made no deep impres- 
sion on his mind until, turning the corner into Pall Mall, 
he observed Mrs. Hall and Miss Bolton (the latter ignorant 
that she was about to meet the man who was bent on her 
ruin) on the point of entering the house of Mrs. Brace. The 
danger of Miss Bolton was at once apparent to the worthy 
doctor, who knew the character of Mrs. Hall, and who was 
now able to account for the visit of the Prince of Wales to 
the house in St. James' square. He lost not a moment in 
accosting Miss Bolton — asked in a very unceremonious 
manner if she were acquainted with the character of her 
comxianion — and insisted upon conducting her back to her 
parents. In a moment Miss Bolton saw the gulf on the 
brink of which she was standing ; with tears in her eyes 
she threw herself under the protection of Dr. Blackborough, 
who led her home, and she lived to be the virtuous spouse 
of Lord Thurlow. 

" High, events like these 
Strike those that make them." 

Notwithstanding the corrupt state of society at this 
period, there were not wanting those who had the fortitude 
to protest against the unlimited debaucheries of this royal 
gallant, and there was more than one noble household 
where it was deemed no honor when the royal livery of the 
Prince was seen before its gates. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 349 



®ftairt*r |jjPto*. 



The jealousy and hatred of the British nation for Napo- 
leon, after the peace of Amiens, were intensified by his 
propositions to prevent the appearance of publications in 
that country offensive to the First Consul. Having nearly 
all the continental press under his control, the attacks of 
English news writers excited in him the fiercest resentment, 
which, as soon as it was known, united the English 
Government in opposition. In both Houses of Parliament 
the spirit of indignation glowed with equal ardor. The 
most brilliant speech ever delivered by Sheridan was 
when he drew a picture of the relative situations of France 
and England at this period. "Look," said he, " at the 
map of Europe j there, where a great man (Mr. Burke) 
said he looked for France, and found nothing but a chasm. 
It was in our power to measure her territory, to reckon her 
population; but it was scarcely within the grasp of any 
man's mind to measure the ambition of Bonaparte. If, 
then, it were true, as he had stated, that his ambition was 
of that immeasurable nature, there were abundant and 
obvious reasons why it should be progressive — reasons 
much stronger than any which could have existed under 
the power of the Bourbons. They were ambitious ; but it 
was not necessary for them to feed their subjects with the 
spoil and plunder of war. They had the attachment of a 
long established family applied to them; they had the 
effect and advantage of hereditary succession. But he 
saw, in the very situation and composition of the power of 
Bonaparte, a physical necessity for him to go on in this 



350 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

barter with, his subjects ; and to promise to make them the 
masters of the world, if they would consent to be his 
slaves. If that were the case, must not his most anxious 
looks be directed to Great Britain $ Everything else was 
petty and contemptible compared with it. Bussia, if not 
in his power, was, at least, in his influence. Prussia was 
at his back — Italy was his vassal — Holland was in his 
grasp — Spain at his nod— Turkey in his toils — Portugal at 
his feet. When he saw this, could he hesitate in stating his 
feelings ? still less could he hesitate in giving a vote that 
should put us upon our guard against the machinations 
and workings of such an ambition." 

The speeches of Sheridan and Lord Moira produced a 
powerful influence upon the people, and, when hostilities 
were actually renewed, the national spirit soared to a high 
pitch. An uprising took place, of which we can form an 
adequate idea by the recollection of Northern scenes in the 
Eebellion of 1861. Volunteer associations formed with 
incredible rapidity in all parts of the land, and persons of 
the highest rank did not hesitate to serve as privates. 
The junior members of the royal family held military com- 
mands of the highest importance ; the Prince of Wales, as 
heretofore, had never been advanced beyond a Colonel of 
Dragoons. In this crisis he again petitioned for military 
rank commensurate with his position, setting forth his 
claims in a lengthened correspondence which passed 
between him and the King $ but which terminated, as in a 
former instance, without his being called into service. 

During the parliamentary session of 1803 the debts of 
the Prince again occupied the attention of Parliament; and, 
if the liabilities of this prodigal were not known to the 
world, it certainly could not have been from any lack of 
ventilation by that body. 

In 1804, the topic which engaged the public attention 
was the quarrel between the Prince and his father respect- 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 351 

ing the education of the Princess Charlotte ; the Prince 
insisted that the mother was an improper companion for 
the daughter, and resolved that she should be confided to 
his sole management. The King, on the contrary, main- 
tained that the Prince of Wales was an improper person to 
have the charge of his own child, and insisted upon the 
right of the mother. The Prince remonstrated with him, 
and pronounced the line which the King had taken to be 
an insult to him. The King, however, was firm, and 
became himself the guardian of the child. 

On the subject ot the Prince of Wales not being allowed 
the education of his own daughter, a writer of that day, in 
vindication of the Prince, says : " We should be glad to 
know by what legal process the Prince's daughter is to be 
taken from him. We do not mean to say that the nation 
has not such a superior interest in the royal family, par- 
ticularly those who are immediately allied to the succes- 
sion, that the care and education of them, as well as their 
marriages, may call for specific regulations. But positive 
law has done nothing to transfer the care and education of 
the children of the Prince of Wales to his father. No act 
of Parliament has done it, and surely we are not to be 
amused with second hand civil law from Bracton and 
Fleta. It is not easy to see good reasons for such tranfer- 
ence, unless it be thought important to make a transfer, 
also, of filial duty and affection. Nothing but strong, par- 
ticular reasons could possibly justify the taking of the 
Princess Charlotte from his care 3 for the very transference 
must be founded upon the supposition of error or miscon- 
duct in him, and with prejudices so excited, perhaps art- 
fully encouraged, it might not be easy afterwards to recon- 
cile the filial reverence, obedience, and duty of the child.' 7 

The Prince was certainly the last person who should have 
been intrusted with the education of his daughter. It is 
a trite maxim that example is better than precept, and cer- 



352 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

tainly nothing yet has been delineated in the character of 
His Eoyal Highness, nor in that of his immediate associ- 
ates, which could induce those persons to believe, who were 
most deeply interested in the education of the Princess 
Charlotte, that any example which could be set before her 
eyes, as emanating from the conduct of her father, could be 
productive of instilling into her mind any fixed notions of 
virtue and morality. It is certainly true that the Prince 
declared at a public dinner that his daughter should be 
educated in the political opinions of those who had been 
his earliest and most valued associates ; but, in regard to 
private character, what could be expected from the example 
which would be daily exhibited to her under the roof of her 
father. Female prostitution on one side, and male liber- 
tinism on the other— on one hand she would have been 
obliged to associate with the Jerseys, the Hopes, and other 
women of that grade — with the very women who had lighted 
the flame of discord in the house of her father — and, on the 
other hand, with that father himself, who had expelled her 
mother from his house to wanton in the meretricious charms 
of sordid concubines. It may be alleged against these 
remarks that, if the education of the Princess Charlotte had 
been confided to her father, it does not follow that she 
would have been exposed to such contaminating influences, 
and that her exalted rank4n life would have entitled her 
to a separate establishment, where it would not have been 
possible for her to have come into contact with such scenes 
of profligacy $ and, further, it may be urged, that instances 
are by no means rare in human life, in which a profligate 
parent has educated his child in the strictest precepts of 
virtue and religion ; but these objections, applicable as they 
may be in certain cases, have no force when considered in 
reference to the education of the Princess Charlotte. His 
natural affection for his daughter, which he manifested on 
every occasion but one ; but that one was, of all others, that, 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. ,353 

when it should have been the most unremittingly displayed, 
might have propelled him to have watched over her educa- 
tion with all the care and anxiety of the most virtuous 
parent; but it should be recollected that the Prince oi 
Wales was not an independent agent; continually subject 
to the control and influence of some favorite concubine, 01 
some fawning parasite, he was obliged to regulate his con- 
duct according to their dictum ; a dangerous interference 
might have been practised in the change of preceptors, and 
notions instilled into the mind of the Princess Charlotte, 
which, had it pleased Heaven to spare her to ascend the 
throne, might have struck at the root of the welfare and 
prosperity of the country. We, therefore, cannot but 
applaud the firmness which was displayed by old George 
III on this occasion, and the choice which he made of the 
preceptors of his granddaughter was an evident proof of his 
parental anxiety to instill into her mind the soundest prin- 
ciples of virtue, religion, and morality. 

The following circumstance forms, however, a strong 
contrast with the foregoing, and which, in its leading fea- 
tures, is of so singular a nature, that no wonder need be 
excited at the extreme interest which it occasioned at the 
time, and the extraordinary construction which was put 
upon it by the scribblers and gossips of the day. We allude 
to the suit in Chancery respecting the guardianship of Miss 
Seymour, in which, although the Prince was only a collat- 
eral party, his feelings were supposed, notwithstanding, to 
be as nearly concerned as those of any other person. The 
question on which the Court was called to pronounce was, 
whether the infant daughter of the late Lord Hugh Seymour 
should remain under the guardianship of Mrs. Fitzherbert, 
to whose care she had been intrusted by her mother, Lady 
Horatia Seymour, almost from the hour of her birth, or be 
placed under the care of the same guardians as the other 
children of Lord Hugh and Lady Horatia ? 



354 THE PRIVATE LIFE OP A KING. 

It appeared from the affidavits exhibited in the Court of 
Chancery, during the progress of the suit, that both Lord 
Hugh and Lady Horatia Seymour wished their daughter to 
remain under the protection of Mrs. Fitzherbert; but as this 
was not legally provided for in the will of Lord Hugh, who 
was the survivor, it was contended by the guardians of his 
other children that it was improper to permit Miss Seymour 
to remain in the hands of a Eoman Catholic, lest, while she 
continued under such guardianship, her religious principles 
should be subverted. 

Some old statutes provide that no Protestant child shall 
be intrusted to the care of a Eoman Catholic guardian, un- 
less the Protestant relations next of kin shall thereunto 
consent 5 and these statutes, in the case of Miss Seymour, 
were attempted to be enforced. It was shown in evidence 
that Lady Horatia Seymour, one of the most virtuous and 
accomplished, as she was one of the most lovely women of 
her age, on her death had bequeathed her youngest daughter 
to the care of Mrs. Fitzherbert, who, on account of Lady 
Horatia's ill health, had had the rearing of the child from 
her infancy, and, with all the solemnity of a dying request, 
conjured the Prince to see that her last wishes were carried 
into effect. 

It is not possible to conceive a scene more solemn and 
affecting than that which was proved on oath to have passed 
between the Prince and Lady Horatia Seymour a few hours 
before her decease. Worn out by that insatiable and un- 
conquerable scourge of English beauty, a pulmonary con- 
sumption, her ladyship sent for His Royal Highness a few 
hours previously to her dissolution, and, in the most earnest 
and pressing terms, conjured him to watch over the future 
safety of her daughter, who was then, and had been almost 
from her birth, under the care of Mrs. Fitzherbert. The 
Prince, deeply affected with the scene, promised to comply 
with her ladyship's request, and, on the death of Lord Hugh 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OP A KING. 355 

Seymour, took upon himself' the whole charge of maintaining 
and educating the orphan, so that her own fortune, which 
was but narrow, might accumulate for her future benefit. 

It ought to be mentioned that Lord Hugh Seymour, who 
was an admiral, and commanded a squadron at Jamaica, 
died in that station subsequent to Lady Horatia, but with- 
out receiving intelligence of her ladyship's death. By his 
will, he bequeathed the guardianship of his children to Ms 
lady, so that had Lady Horatia survived him but a single 
day, she might have left the guardianship of her daughter 
to whom she pleased, without anyone having a right to 
interfere. 

It appeared clearly in evidence that the child had been 
placed under the protection of Mrs. Fitzherbert with the 
perfect concurrence and approbation of Lord Hugh Sey- 
mour, which concurrence and approbation, considering the 
very questionable relation in which that lady stood with the 
Prince, reflect no great credit upon the prudence and judg- 
ment of his lordship. It was also proved that his lordship 
had frequently expressed the utmost gratitude for the ten- 
derness which Mrs. Fitzherbert had shown to his daughter; 
and there appeared no reason whatever to suppose that he 
would have changed the dispositions which his lady had 
made, respecting their child, on her death bed. 

It appeared, further, that Miss Seymour was a child of an 
extremely delicate constitution, that she had been with great 
difficulty reared, and that, in all probability, her life would 
be endangered were she removed out of the hands of Mrs. 
Fitzherbert, and committed to the care of another person. 

The only answer that was made to all this, and, indeed, 
the sole objection to Miss Seymour's remaining under the 
protection of Mrs. Fitzherbert, was that, that lady being a 
Roman Catholic, the religious principles of her Protestant 
ward might be endangered. In reply to this, Mrs. Fitz- 
herbert put in an affidavit, denying that she was actuated 



356 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

by any spirit of proselytism, or had any desire to convert 
her warjl ; on the contrary, that she was determined to edu- 
cate her according to the religious principles of her noble 
parentsl i An affidavit of the Prince to the same effect was 
read in Court, and another of the Bishop of Winchester, who, 
by-the-by, appears at this time to have been the most com- 
plaisant of the whole mitred fraternity, in which his lord- 
ship deposed that he had examined Miss Seymour touching 
her religious instruction, and found that she had received 
regular lessons on the subject from a clergyman of the 
Church of England, and was as well and properly instructed 
in the fundamentals of the Protestant faith as it was pos- 
sible for a young person of her age to be. 

It was not, however, with the religious education of Miss 
Seymour that the gossiping part of the English people 
interested themselves ; but some strange rumors got afloat 
as to the actual relationship of Miss Seymour to her alleged 
parents ; and it was hinted that the young lady was more 
closely related to her guardian than the world knew of; 
indeed, the extraordinary exertions which were made to 
retain the guardianship afforded fresh materials for the sup- 
port of that suspicion, involving, at the same time, the 
character of the Prince. It was positively stated that the 
Miss Seymour living under the protection of Mrs. Fitzher 
bert, and concerning whom the Prince so strongly interested 
himself, was not the actual child of Lord and Lady Horatia 
Seymour ; but that, with the privity and concurrence of 
those individuals, the child was sent to Mrs. Fitzherbert as 
their own, whereas it was the real offspring of the illicit 
connection between that lady and the Prince. But the 
extraordinary exertions made to retain the child, which 
could not be exceeded by parental affection itself, gave 
coloring to the suspicions, and tended in no degree to abate 
the virulence with which the character of the Prince was 
at this time justly assailed. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 357 

Whoever has had the patience or the curiosity to peruse 
one half of the defamatory productions which were pub- 
lished against the Prince, from the year 1783 to the time 
almost of the Begency, will have run through a tolerable 
number of volumes, and may be able to form a competent 
judgment of the licentiousness of the press which existed at 
that period. Censure, as Swift justly observes, is the tax 
a man pays for being eminent. 

A person who was convicted of a libel on the Prince of 
Wales and the Duke of York was sentenced by the Court 
to stand in the pillory opposite the Horse Guards. On the 
morning on which that part of the sentence was to be car- 
ried into execution, it happened that the Prince, perfectly 
unacquainted with the circumstance, rode past the spot 
where the pillory was erected, and was detained by the 
crowd some moments in sight of the offender. Such an 
occurrence as this, though purely accidental, might have 
been construed to the disadvantage of the Prince, as an 
illiberal triumph over an obscure fallen enemy ; and, there- 
fore, the next day the Prince sent one of his servants to the ' 
individual to apologize for the seeming indelicacy of his 
being present on the occasion, by showing that it was 
owing to mere accident. 

When the Prince was between the age of thirty and 
forty, his mask was taken in plaster of Paris by Papiera, 
an Italian, from which, if we mistake not, the bust by Mr. 
Banks was modelled. The operation, even when executed 
by the most skilful, is not very agreeable, to say the least 
of it. Sometimes the plaster is apt to adhere to the skin; 
and, had such a circumstance occurred with this illustrious 
personage, the dilemma would have been of serious conse- 
quence perhaps to the operator. "How long, think you, 
will it require to produce the mask F inquired the Prince. 
" Five minutes, Sir," was the response. " Well, then," said 
the Prince, " we shall see f so, looking at his watch, he 



358 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

showed the time to Papiera, laid it upon the table, and 
kindly added, " Do not hurry yourself, for I am not impa- 
tient, and I wish you to perform your task well." Papiera, 
to use his own words, observed, u So gracious and con- 
descending was the manner of His Eoyal Highness that I 
went to my work without embarrassment, and completed 
it within the time." The Prince expressed his satisfaction 
at the skill with which it was performed, and entered into 
familiar chat with the plaster caster. "What is your 
height, Papiera?" asked His Eoyal Highness; "I think 
you are as near as may be to my stature." Papiera an- 
swered, "I believe your Eoyal Highness has the advantage." 
" Come," said the Prince, u let us measure f when, placing 
him against the wall, he unsheathed a small sword, and 
with the point made the mark. " Now," said he, turning 
to Lord Moira, who was present, " mark my height; but do 
it fairly, my lord." The point was fixed, and .Papiera 
proved himself, though a courtier, yet no flatterer, for the 
Prince had the advantage by half an inch. This courtesy 
of the Prince extended itself to the ingenious of all classes 
who had the least personal intercourse with him. Papiera, 
be it known, was of no higher rank in the arts than a man- 
ufacturer in plaster casts. 

As a contrast to the above, we will insert another anec- 
dote, which, although it happened at a remoter period of 
his life, will show that, even when he was a King, decked 
with all the trappings of royalty, he could take even a 
reproof without considering his dignity insulted. 

Just previous to Mathews coming to America to fulfil 
his engagement at the old Park Theatre — and there are 
some old citizens of New York now living who remember 
him — he exhibited a selection from his popular entertain- 
ments by command of His Majesty— as the Prince had now 
become King George IY— at Carlton Palace. A select party 
of not more than six or eight persons were present, includ- 



THE PRIVATE LITE OF A KING. 359 

ing the Princess Augusta and the Marchioness of Conyng- 
ham. During the entertainment, with which His Majesty 
seemed much delighted, Mathews introduced his imitations 
of various performers on the British stage, and was pro- 
ceeding with John Kemble, in the Stranger, when he was 
interrupted by the King, who, in the most affable manner, 
observed that his general imitations were excellent, and 
such as no one who had ever seen the characters could fail 
to recognize; but he thought the comedian's portrait of 
John Kemble somewhat too boisterous. u He is an old 
friend, and, I might add, a tutor of mine," observed His 
Majesty ; u when I was Prince of Wales he often favored 
me with his company. I will give you an imitation of John 
Kemble," said the good humored monarch. u May I request 
your attention," said the King to his attendants, peers, and 
lords, who stood near the sofa on which he and the ladies 
were seated. Mathews was electrified. The lords of the 
bedchamber eyed each other with surprise. The King rose 
and prefaced his imitation by observing, u I once requested 
John Kemble to take a pinch of snuff with me, and for that 
purpose placed my box on the table before him, saying, 
1 Kemble, oblige (obleege) me by taking a pinch of snuff.' 
He took a pinch and then addressed me thus : (Here His 
Majesty assumed the peculiar carriage of Mr. Kemble.) * I 
thank your Royal Highness for your snuff, but in future do 
extend your royal jaws a little wider, and say, oblige.'" 
The anecdote was* given with the most powerful similitude 
to the actor's voice and manner, and had an astonishing 
effect on the party present. 

At times he would even be jocular on subjects of serious 
import, and, especially, on one which others could not, and 
dare not, mention without encountering one of those deep 
impressive frowns of displeasure which were so much his 
peculiar characteristic in his later years. 

When the two Owyhee chiefs were introduced to him at 



360 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

Carlton Palace, he was much amused with their conversa- 
tion — through an interpreter — and he asked them a good 
many questions ; among other things, the elder chief told 
him he had six wives , after which His Majesty good humor- 
edly observed: " Notwithstanding which, you left your 
country ! Well 5 I have but one, and I find that enough to 
manage." 

To return to the affair of Miss Seymour. As in the major- 
ity of cases, where prudence gets the better of the spirit of 
litigation, and knowing that publicity only tends to expose 
both parties to contempt, if not to odium, the affair of Miss 
Seymour was taken out of Court and referred to the arbi- 
tration of the head of Miss Seymour's family, the Marquis 
of Hertford. Of the decision of that nobleman no particu- 
lars transpired ; but it may be presumed that it was not 
unfavorable to the guardianship of Mrs. Fitzherbert, as 
Miss Seymour continued under the protection of that lady; 
but it was publicly remarked that submitting the case to 
the arbitration of the Marquis of Hertford was the same 
thing as submitting it to the Prince of Wales himself, as 
that nobleman was then beginning to bask in the beams of 
royal favor, from a cause which will be explained in its 
proper place. 

In the early part of the year 1804, the Prince had an 
opportunity of evincing his sincere regard for one of his 
warmest and most confidential friends. On the death of 
Lord Elliot, the office of Receiver of the Duchy of Cornwall 
became vacant, and it was immediately bestowed by the 
Prince upon Mr. Sheridan, "asa trifling proof of that sin- 
cere friendship His Royal Highness had always professed 
and felt for him through a long series of years." The 
Prince also added, in the same communication, the very 
cordial words, "I wish to God it was better worth your 
acceptance." 

Who is there that has turned over the pages of the history 



sj THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 361 

of the female sex, and has not been wrapt in admiration at 
the many acts displayed of conjugal heroism, in which the 
female appears to soar above the sphere of her nature, and, 
in defiance of the most appalling dangers, becomes the 
victim to the force of her affection ? Who is there that, 
whilst reverencing and almost adoring the character of a 
Lavalette, does not see that woman, notwithstanding the 
natural weakness of her sex, is able, under the influence of 
love, to accomplish a deed which sets at naught the boasted 
exploits of man, and places him, as it were, in the second 
rank of greatness and of virtue. 

Perhaps few females are more richly deserving of the 
above encomium than the once celebrated Lady Massarene, 
the avowed favorite of the Prince, and who bestowed upon 
him all the force of her affection, to be treated, like the 
majority of his other favorites, with the most cruel neglect 
and indifference. The history of this celebrated woman is 
of a truly romantic character, and had she had the good 
fortune to have bestowed her first love on an object worthy 
of her, or who conld have appreciated the value of her 
transcendent virtues, she would have shone in the world as 
one of the brightest luminaries in the galaxy of the female 
sex. 

Beauty is, with the most apt similitude, and, we may say, 
with the most literal truth, called a flower, that fades and 
dies almost in the very moment of its maturity. Yet there 
is, we know, a kind of beauty which lives even to old age 
— a beauty that is not in the features, but which, if we,, 
may be allowed the expression, shines through them. 
Such was the beauty which shone through the features 
of Lady Massarene, even when the beauty that was 
in the features had given way to the ravages of age. 
As that beauty is not merely corporeal, it is not the ob- 
ject of mere sense, nor is it to be discovered but by per- 
sons of fine taste and refined sentiment. There are strokes 

16 



362 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

of sensibility, mere touches of delicacy, sense, and even vir- 
tue, which, like the master traits in a fine picture, are not 
to be discerned by vulgar eyes, which are captivated with 
vivid colors and gaudy decorations. There are emanations 
of the mind, which, like the vital spirit of heavenly fire, 
animate the form of beauty with a living soul. Without 
this, the most perfect symmetry in the bloom of youth is 
but a kneaded clod ; and with this, the features, that time 
itself has defaced, have a spirit, a sensibility, an inexpressi- 
ble charm, which those only do not admire who lack facul- 
ties to perceive. 

It may be said that, of all the females who were capti- 
vated with the handsome person and fascinating manners 
of the Prince, there were few who remained until their 
death more sincerely attached to hifti than Lady Massa- 
rene. Of the precise manner in which His Royal Highness 
succeeded in his amour with Lady Massarene we have not 
been able to discover any authentic data ; on her side, how- 
ever, it was one of the warmest affection — on his a mere 
transient ebullition of passion — burning for a time with 
a Vesuvian ardor, and then sinking into coldness and 
inanity. 

Lady Massarene was a native of France, and a daughter 
of the keeper of the prison in Paris, in which Lord Massa- 
rene had been confined for debt for several years. As per- 
sons of condition in France, under the old regime, were not 
ashamed of the office of jailer, nor were in consequence Of 
their fulfilling that odious situation deprived of the associa- 
tion of the higher classes, no detriment accrued to the 
beautiful daughter of the jailer, in the extent of her edu- 
cation, nor of her intercourse with the more polished 
classes of society. Compassion is the nurse of Love. Lord 
Massarene, during his confinement, excited the compassion 
of the lovely girl; she gave him her love, worthless and 
vicious as he was, and they were married in the year 1786. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 363 

By some it has been said that it was the rank of Lord 
Massarene which the jailer's daughter coveted, for that to 
love him was impossible. To judge, however, by her sub- 
sequent actions, she must haVe been ruled by an almost 
enthusiastic attachment, or she never would have braved 
those dangers for him, which place her name in the same 
scroll with that of a Lavalette or a Matilda of Tuscany. 

If the heart of Lord Massarene had not been as impervi- 
ous to the feelings of gratitude as marble is to the rays of 
the sun, he must have discovered the inestimable value 
which he possessed in the heart of his wife, in her meritori- 
ous attempt to release him from prison, and which would 
have terminated successfully had not, just at the moment 
of its accomplishment, the flooring gave away, which she 
had undermined from a house contiguous to the prison, and 
which, being detected, she nearly escaped the forfeiture of 
her life. 

This affair became soon known to the public through the 
proceedings instituted by the fiscal ; and at such a moment, 
when the revolutionary spirit was on the eve of bursting 
forth, was enthusiastically applauded by the people, who, 
in 1792, on the memorable 14th of July, conducted her lady- 
ship to the gates of the Bastile, where she animated the 
people with the most invincible courage, until the governor 
surrendered. <* 

This was the first step to a still nobler action, which 
evinced one of the highest traits of conjugal affection, by 
making use of her popularity to release her husband, the 
gates of whose prison were forced, and Lord Massarene lib- 
erated at the hazard of her own life. 

After such heroic actions Lady Massarene might have 
fairly anticipated the applause of her country and the grat- 
itude of her husband ; but the latter basely withdrew him- 
self from France, without giving her the slightest intima- 
tion of his design, leaving her without any pecuniary 



364 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 

means, either to perish upon the theatre of her intrepidity, 
or to find her way to England in the best possible manner 
she was able. At last, on reaching England, she found 
that Lord Massarene had departed for Ireland, where her 
fame had already reached, and which was rewarded by the 
generous Irish with the utmost respect and distinction, 
although the noble lord himself scarcely acknowledged 
the connection, and treated his generous liberator with the 
greatest indifference. 

On Lord Massarene leaving Ireland for England, his lady 
accompanied hini; but he had not been long resident in this 
country before he was thrown into the King's Bench prison, 
where he would have been reduced to the most abject 
misery but for the generosity and humanity of his ill 
treated wife. Fortunately for Lord Massarene, a settle- 
ment which he made upon her of £500 a year, out of the 
wreck of his fortune, enabled her to support him in prison, 
even when the irregularity of the Irish agents threatened 
to involve her personally in distress and difficulties. 

At the period of which we are now speaking, Lady Massa- 
rene possessed a finely formed person, brilliant eyes, and a 
countenance beaming with sensibility and expression. Of 
course she soon became an object of attraction to the volup- 
tuous and the dissipated $ but she was excessively reserved 
in granting her favors, for selfishness formed no part of her 
character, and she rejected all emolument and lucre where 
she could not give her heart. The Prince's jackals, being 
always on the alert, prowling in quest of their prey for the 
royal voluptuary, were not long in discovering the beauty 
of Lady Massarene, and the usual expedients were put in 
force to obtain possession of it. It was at Mrs. Howe's, in 
St. James' place, where the first negotiation took place for 
the transfer of Lady Massarene to the temporary affections 
of His Royal Highness j and as her ladyship had actually 
imbibed a strong affection for his person, the negotiation 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 365 

was not of long duration. On his part, however, the 
attachment was capricious and transient ; it was marked 
with all the fickleness and inconstancy which were so 
glaringly apparent in all his other amours, and he soon dis- 
carded Lady Massarene to make way for another whose 
chief recommendation was that of novelty, without, per- 
haps, possessing a single good quality to render the con- 
quest desirable. 

Lady Massarene, however, was a woman who deserved to 
be beloved ; nor was it until she had obtained the most dis- 
gusting proofs of the gross and sensual appetites of Lord 
Massarene that she became enamored of the Prince, and 
even then her passion was regulated by an exterior deport- 
ment the most becoming, and habits of the greatest deli- 
cacy and propriety. Courage, constancy, and devotion 
were elementary parts of her character $ in fact, her strong- 
fidelity seemed doomed, in the two connections which she 
made in England, to be treated with neglect by the highest, 
while, in the person of her husband, she was disgraced by 
the lowest of mankind. 

Of the general opinion which was entertained at this time 
of the character of the Prince, the following extracts from 
the celebrated letters of Neptune and Gracchus, addressed 
to His Koyal Highness, will afford a striking evidence. Of 
the author of these letters, which, in their style and bold- 
ness of expression, bear a strong resemblance to the Letters 
of Junius, many rumors at the time were afloat 5 the most 
prevalent opinion, however, was that they were from the 
pen of Sir Philip Francis, to whom the Letters of Junius 
have also been ascribed. Their general tenor is vitupera- 
tive of Mr. Fox; and to him is attributed all the political 
offences which the Prince committed, and especially the dis- 
sension which existed between him and his illustrious father : 

" Your dishonorable intimacy with the most profligate characters in the 
kingdom has not only excited an alarm amongst all ranks of people at home, 



366 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

but it lias become the common table conversation of every petit cabaret in 
Europe, where you are censured more for your want of pride than your want 
of prudence ; and while foreigners behold with scorn and astonishment the 
heir to the crown of Great Britain degrading himself below the level of even 
the meanest of his worthless companions, your fellow citizens lament, with 
the most affectionate concern, your obstinate attachment to men who have 
long since forfeited every pretension to the confidence of their country, and 
who have neither talents nor integrity equal to the employments which they 
audaciously demand. 

" A momentary reflection would be sufficient to awaken you to a sense of 
your situation ; but your associates, aware of the danger of leaving you to 
yourself, have artfully contrived to keep you in the vortex of dissipation, lest 
a lucid interval should restore you from the delirium of pleasure to the exer- 
cise of your understanding. 

" In the black catalogue of their aggravated guilt, the infamy of playing 
off the son against the father is not the least criminal and injurious. It is 
perfectly consistent with their principles, and favorable to their designs, to 
render the former a dupe to their artifices, and the latter a cipher in his 
dominions ; but, as millions are involved in your fate, it is impossible but the 
clamors of the multitude must force their way through the sturdy and beg- 
garly phalanx with which you have guarded Carlton House, and compel you 
to acknowledge a truth which filial duty, independent of every political 
obligation, ought to have suggested to you." 

In one of the letters of Gracchus, addressed at this period 
to the Prince, on his general mode of life, are the following 
energetic passages : 

" It has been said, and I fear by some of your intimates — 1 will not 
call them friends — with a treachery unparalleled, that a narrow selfishness 
is the motive of all your actions; that the gratification of the moment is 
the sole purpose of your existence ; yet it remains with you to counteract 
the malice of such assertions. Let your mind only correspond with the 
comeliness of your person, and the nobleness of your countenance; 
be but half as active in acquiring esteem as you have been in losing it, 
and you will rise to a height of splendor as incomparable as uncommon. 

"But let us examine in what, hitherto, your activity has been shown; 
what have been your Herculean labors. The inquiry is too odious; they 
would better suit a Silenus or a Satyr. The history of your own time, if 
comprised in a volume, would, perhaps, be curious ; but the recitals it would 
contain, instead of tinging your cheek with the glow of vanity, ought rather 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 367 

to crimson them with shame, and cover you with confusion. Can a Prince 
place the point of excellence on such mean endeavors ? Debauchery and 
dissipation distinguish only in proportion as they consign to censure. Let 
even that idea check your progress towards imperfection — a progress 
which has hitherto increased with the rapidity of a comet in its approach 
to the sun. 

"If, Sir, your pursuit of women, the most meritorious occupation of 
your life, had been marked with sentiment or affection in any instance, we 
might probably, in some degree, have approved your conduct; had you 
never boasted when you failed, the world would have less condemned you 
when successful; but, though you can only talk of conquests, there are 
others who mention defeats." 

It is well known that none can give so accurate an 
account of any errors or follies as those who have them- 
selves been subject to them, or, at least, connected with 
some that have. They know the fort and the foible, the 
pour and the contre; to the latter of which may be traced all 
the vices and virtues by which an individual is distin- 
guished. They know, and they only know because they 
have felt, what was the charm that fascinated, the attrac- 
tion that drew, and the tie that bound ; they therefore can 
best describe and most effectually expose them. 

Who Isan so well describe -the intrigues of a Court as 
those who, either by choice or necessity, are doomed to inhale 
its baneful atmosphere % We have, indeed, lived removed from 
it, but we have lived with those who have passed their 
lives in it, who have drawn aside and exposed to our view 
the secret machinery, the motives and the ends of the mot. 
ley group, which, from the monarch himself to the lowest 
of his menials, swarm within its precincts. * In the deli- 
neation of those characters the greatest danger lies of fall- 
ing into caricature, and, instead of giving a portrait drawn 
by the hand of the master, a coarse daubing of a misshapen 
figure is exhibited, which cannot be recognized as " born 
either of Heaven or earth," but as some vile abortion of the 

* Huish's Memoirs, vol. 1, page 402. 



3G8 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

artist's own imagination. It is a most difficult task, in the 
delineation of character, to catch the man when his real self 
is exhibited, when the disguise, which the relations of 
society into which he may have been thrown, is laid aside, 
and the whole nakedness is presented with all its imper- 
fections and deformities. It may appear paradoxical, but 
it is nevertheless founded in truth, that the same quality 
may be delightful in one man and disgusting in another ; 
one man may have a light that wants a shade, another a 
shade that wants a light ; the difficulty lies in giving the 
due proportion to each, and thereby rendering the portrait 
true and faithful. 

It does not require the rod of the domine to whip into us 
the truth of the axiom, that a man is known by the society 
that he keeps ; if we measure the virtue of the Prince by 
that of his associates, the result will not be much in his 
favor. 

Let it not be inferred that we would picture the Prince as 
so wholly engrossed in sensual pleasures as to be insensible 
to the promotion of art and science. In this year he received 
six rolls of papyri from the King of Naples, he having in 
1800, four years before, commissioned Eev. John Hayter to 
make investigations at Herculaneum and Pompeii, which 
resulted in the rescue of valuable manuscripts, that were 
published both at Naples and London. But it was the 
policy of M'Mahon to keep his royal master's mind bent 
upon more ignoble pursuits. 

The talents of Colonel M'Mahon were chiefly exercised in 
furnishing new favorites for the Prince. Perhaps in all his- 
tory there can be found record of no character so truly des- 
picable $ he and his wife thrived by pandering to the worst 
vices of the Prince. One of the most difficult trials of this 
parasite, in procuring new candidates for the royal harem, 
was in the. case of the celebrated Hillisberg, and this amour 
presents the extraordinary feature of His Eoyal Highness 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 369 

becoming himself the negotiator of another suitor for her 
favors, after he had satiated himself with the richness of the 
fruit, and thought the exterior shell no longer worthy of his 
keeping. If ever there was a woman dear to the imagina- 
tion as a dancer, Louise Hillisberg seemed created to real- 
ize the Idylls of the ancient poets, when peopling the groves 
of Greece with the dances and music of nature. She was 
the beau ideal of the voluptuary, when in his fancy he is 
creating a form gifted with all that can inflame the heart of 
man, or which can bring the mortal into close resemblance 
with the angel. 

Hillisberg was born in England, of French parents, and 
was early destined for the stage — an atmosphere teeming 
with the most baneful influences upon the existence of 
female virtue. It was, however, in Paris, under the elder 
Yestris, that she first manifested that dramatic excellence 
that knows how to awaken the sympathies by a glance of 
the eye, or to subdue the tumult of the passions by a smile 
of innocence and love. In private the same graces acquired 
for her the respect of the higher rank of females, who were 
delighted to intrust their children to her 5 while the men of 
fashion, who sought to attract her notice, and contended 
for her love, mingled respect with admiration, and the vir- 
tue that appeared to surround her kept the passions under 
control. 

She made her debut in London at the moment of time 
when the rivalry of certain noblemen kept the world of 
fashion in a state of continual excitement. Whenever a 
youthful beauty presented herself, under circumstances in 
which it might be supposed that a conquest could be gained, 
a crowd of candidates immediately presented themselves, 
outvying each other in their assiduities and pretensions to 
exclusive favors, and exhausting the utmost force of their 
inventions in drawing the desired victim into the snares 
prepared for her. 

16* 



370 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

The opera was, at the debut of Hillisberg, at its zenith in 
London : Banti, Yiganoni, Morelli, and Bolla, for the seri- 
ous and comic opera 5 the younger Vestris, Hillisberg, 
Maillaird, Rosa, etc., for the ballet ; and No^prre, as the 
master of the latter, rendered their amusements classical 
and perfect in their several attractions. Hillisberg, as a 
dancer, became, in fact, the rage ; and the competition for 
her favors, which she knew how to repel without offending, 
added to her wealth and influence. Some of those men who 
were apt to regard the virtue of an opera dancer as equally 
frangible as the ice of an April morning, and that it would 
dissolve away with the first warm gust of passion that was 
breathed upon it, regarded Hillisberg as a being completely 
sui generis. There was that about her which the eye of man 
looks for in woman, and yet apparently so cold, so frigid, 
and seemingly as impervious to the influence of love as an 
oyster. These shrewd observers, however, only saw the 
exterior ; there was a secret flame glowing within, but 

" She never told her love ; 
But let concealment, like a worm i' th' bud, 
Feed on her damask cheek." 

Hillisberg was a woman fit to be wooed and won by roy- 
alty ; and the Prince, yearning for novelty, no sooner saw 
her than the abilities of John M'Mahon were called into 
action to commence the negotiation. She was, however, 
one of those women who, although yielding to the weakness 
of their nature, pay great deference to the opinion of the 
world 5 and although the Prince acquired a decided ascend- 
ency over her heart, yet she so veiled her partiality as to 
conceal her connection from the eyes of the public; and this 
secret amour was so well managed at Carlton House by 
M'Mahon, who was in the confidence of both parties, that 
Hillisberg stood in the estimation of the public as an exem- 
plary pattern of female virtue. A stronger proof of the 
secrecy with which this amour was carried on and consum- 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING-. 371 

mated cannot be deduced than the circumstance that, at the 
very time when she was the secret nocturnal guest of Carl- 
ton House, the Duke of York was making every exertion 
in his power to make an impression upon her apparently 
obdurate heart, little suspecting at the time that that 
same heart was vivified by an ardent attachment for his 
own brother. 

Among the young men who shone at this period in the 
hemisphere of fashion was the first Lord Barrymore, whose 
introduction to Carlton House, where he became initiated 
in all the vices which were exhibited in that royal brothel, 
joined to a disposition of his own naturally profligate and 
extravagant, soon rendered him notorious in the annals of 
gallantry ; and as one of the companions of the Prince he 
became acquainted with some of the most distinguished 
beauties of the day. The bacchanalian orgies of Carlton 
House were at this time of a most extraordinary description, 
and might be said to resemble more the interior of a Turk- 
ish seraglio than the abode of a British Prince, in which 
it might be supposed that some respect ought to have been 
paid to the customary forms of decency and morality. The 
young libertine, with the tide of passion flowing strong irpon 
him, had scenes exhibited to him, which opened at once to 
him the mysteries of nature, and rendered him on a sudden 
an adept ere almost he had become a scholar. The dances 
which were exhibited for the amusement of the companions 
of the Prince were performed by females, whose sole aim and 
study appeared to have been, like the dancing girls of the 
East, to perfect themselves in voluptuousness of attitude, 
and in a shameless exposure of their person to the unre- 
strained gaze of the libidinous voluptuary. Lord Barrymore 
was, at the Opera House, one of the satellites who were con- 
tinually moving round the Hillisberg ; but the extraordinary 
reserve which she maintained in her intercourse with the 
numerous suitors for her favors, especially when she was in 



372 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING-. 

the performance of her professional duties, drove many away 
from her presence in despair, whilst in others it only in- 
creased the force of their exertions to carry off so splendid 
a treasure. It was, however, at Carlton House, that Lord 
Barrymore saw Hillisberg in her real native beauty, free 
from the garnish and garniture of her profession, and it was 
at a time when the Prince began to be sated with her charms, 
and would willingly have relinquished her to another, if that 
other could be found on whom she could fix her affections. 
The assiduities of Lord Barrymore were noticed by the 
Prince, and he doubted not that he had now found the in- 
dividual who would rid him of an object who possessed no 
longer the charm of novelty for him, and whose very con- 
nection with him, on account of its secrecy, was rendered 
positively irksome to him. The Prince commenced a nego- 
tiation, but lie soon discovered that, in regard to any illicit 
connection, Hillisberg would not enter into any terms which 
might be considered as a compromise of her character, and 
thereby expel her at once from that station in life which she 
had hitherto maintained. The Prince was strenuous in his 
efforts to obtain a settlement for Hillisberg, and the extreme 
anxiety which he displayed to transfer her to the arms of 
another by no means exalted him in her good opinion. 
Finding, however, that secondary measures would not avail, 
Lord Barrymore, at last, was induced to make a formal offer 
of marriage, which was accompanied with the proprietor- 
ship of the house then building in Piccadilly, and since the 
residence of the Marquis of Hertford, with all the family 
diamonds then unsold, and the whole of the personal prop- 
erty, which the extravagant habits of this scion of nobility 
had yet left for him to dispose of. These offers were, how- 
ever, all rejected. Hillisberg could not give her hand where 
she could not bestow her affections, and the Prince, finding 
that he could not emancipate himself from the chains that 
enthralled him by throwing her into the arms of another, 



THE PRIVATE LITE OF A KINO. 373 

took the earliest opportunity of excluding her from his so- 
ciety, and leaving her, like many of the victims who had 
preceded her, to further her own interest in the world ac- 
cording to the ruling bias of her disposition. 

There are three kinds of returns for injuries: abject sub- 
mission, severe retaliation, and contemptuous disregard. 
The first is always the worst, and the last generally the best j 
yet, however different they may be in themselves, the dig- 
nity of the last is so much superior to common conceptions 
that an individual is, perhaps, forced upon the second 
merely to prove that she did not stoop to the first ; Hillis- 
berg, for the treatment she received, sought not for retali- 
ation, although she had it in her power to raise a flame 
amongst the community of Carlton House which might 
have extended to a certain quarter where it was the least 
wished for that it should reach. Her subsquent conduct to 
the Prince was, however, strongly marked by a contemptu- 
ous disregard, which, whilst it humbled the royal delinquent, 
invested Hillisberg with a dignity of character seldom to 
be met with in the individuals of her vocation, and particu- 
larly amongst the female part of it. One evening, shortly 
after her repudiation (if that strong term, as applied to Hil- 
lisberg, may be allowed us,) the Prince was behind the 
scenes at the Opera House, when, in the most familiar 
manner, and as if totally unconscious of any previous 
improper conduct on his part, he accosted Hillisberg as she 
was leaving the stage. She cast upon him a look of inef- 
fable scorn, saying, "You are the Prince of Wales, Sir, then 
know that I am Louise Hillisberg," and, without deigning 
to make any other acknowledgment, passed on. 

Hillisberg may, in verity, have been called an amiable 
woman. She fell, it must be confessed, to the blandish- 
ments which royalty strewed around her ; and it must be 
added, to as ardent an attachment as ever vivified a female 
heart ; but the close of her life was miserable. She con- 



374 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

nected herself with an emigrant of the Court of Marie 
Antoinette, who squandered her fortune, neglected her per- 
son, broke her heart, and furnished another link to that 
chain, which, although wreathed with flowers that wither, 
and die in the fetid atmosphere of a royal brothel, drags 
the suffering victim at last to an untimely grave. This 
individual was Mr. Charles Beaumont, who acted, while in 
England, in the double capacity of agent of both Govern- 
ments, but who was exiled from France as the murderer of 
the virtuous Manuel, and one of the greatest slaves to the 
Villele Administration. 

There was not, perhaps, any circumstance which contrib- 
uted more to increase the unpopularity of the Prince than 
his being in an almost continual state of discord with his 
illustrious father. It is said that the good can only live 
with the good $ and as George III was known in his habits 
to be a strictly moral and virtuous man, the reflecting part 
of the community immediately came to the conclusion that, 
as the sovereign and his son could not live together on 
terms of amity and good will, the acting cause was that the 
virtues of the father could not coalesce with the vices of 
the son. Could the pious old King have read the excel- 
lent sermon of Henry Ward Beecher on the text, " If it be 
possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all 
men n (Eomans xii, 18,) he, no doubt, would have come to the 
conclusion that it was impossible to live peaceably with his 
impious son and heir. It must, however, be acknowledged 
that this disparity in their moral dispositions had no share 
in their dissensions, for they were entirely of a political 
nature. From the very first entrance of the Prince into 
life, when he emerged from the trammels of parental author- 
ity, one of his first steps was to enlist himself under the 
banners of opposition to his father's Government $ and, from 
that period up to that of which we are now writing, numer- 
ous instances can be adduced in which the son arrayed 



. THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 375 

himself against the father, and by his uniform devotedness 
to the political principles of the great leader of opposition, 
clogged the wheels of the machinery of the executive gov- 
ernment, and threw every possible obstacle in the way of 
the accomplishment of its designs. The licentious and 
immoral conduct of the heir apparent went deep to sting 
the heart of the royal parent ; and the hand of forgiveness 
was no sooner stretched out, on the promises of reforma- 
tion, than some new act of profligacy, of a deeper die, per- 
haps, than any of the preceding ones, came upon the royal 
ear, and at once closed every avenue to all personal com- 
munication. 

The disastrous results of the marriage of the Prince, who 
imputed the entire blame of the ill starred union to the 
obstinacy of his father, in forcing him into a relation of life 
which he knew he was unable to fill with propriety, or even 
common decorum, tended, in a very material degree, to 
widen the breach between the illustrious parties ; to which 
may be added the decided espousal on the part of the King 
of the cause of the Princess, and his stern refusal of per- 
mitting the Prince to educate his own daughter, on a mere 
fictitious plea of prerogative. 

Thus matters stood between the royal parties at the close 
of the year 1804, when, by some means never made public, 
a reconciliaiion took place, which promised, though falsely, 
to be j)roductive of the most beneficial consequences. The 
interview took place at Kew Palace, the Queen and the 
Princess being present. The meeting, after a long interval, 
was extremely affecting, marked by every emotion of kind- 
ness and conciliation on the one part, and of filial respect 
on the other. After an hour's conference, His Majesty, 
accompanied J by the Duke of Cumberland, returned to 
Windsor, and the Prince, with the Dukes of Kent and Sus- 
sex, to Carlton House, where the Duke of Eutland, Earl 
Moira, Mr. Sheridan, and others were ready to receive him ; 



376 . THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

at the same time that an express was sent to Woburn to 
fetch Mr. Fox to have an audience of the Prince on this 
happy occasion. 

The King, however, had still some misgivings, as appears 
from the following letter, addressed to the Princess of 
Wales, to whom the King continued to show the most 
decided marks of affection. The Princess was at this time 
living at Montague House, Blackheath, the King having 
presented her, in the year 1800, with the Rangership of 
Greenwich Park. 

"Windsor Castle, November 13, 1804. 

"My Dearest Daughter-in-law and Niece: Yesterday I and the rest 
of the family had an interview with the Prince of "Wales at Kew. Care was 
taken on all sides to avoid all subjects of altercation or explanation ; conse- 
quently, the conversation was neither instructive nor entertaining, but it 
leaves the Prince of Wales in a situation to show whether his desire to return 
to his family is only verbal or real, wliich time alone can prove. I am not 
idle in my endeavors to make inquiries that may enable me to communicate 
some plan for the advantage of the dear child for whom you and I, with so 
much reason, must interest ourselves, and its effecting my having the happi- 
ness of living more with you is no small incentive to my forming some idea 
on the subject ; but you may depend upon their not being decided upon with- 
out your thorough and cordial concurrence — for your authority as a mother 
it is my object to support. 

" Believe me at all times, 

" My dearest daughter-in-law and niece, 
u Tour most affectionate 

" Father-in-law and uncle, 

" George E." 

The opinion which was held by the public of the actual 
principle on which this reconciliation took place was vari- 
ously expressed ; for while some persons maintained that it 
was wholly of a private tendency, others saw in it an 
approximation of the two great political parties. 

It is one of the trite maxims of life that some men are 
born great, and others have greatness thrust upon them; 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 377 

but how far the truth of that maxim may regulate the cour- 
tesy of a Court, where one only can be called great, may 
furnish matter of distinction between John M'Mahon and 
his secretary, Mr. Marable. Among those persons, how- 
ever, whom royal favor raised to the rank of gentlemen, 
Mr. Marable is one whom it is difficult to denominate by 
any specific official term, or to fix on the station which he 
occupied in the royal household. He undoubtedly was 
retained for what he knetv more than for any use the Prince 
required of him after he became sovereign. Both M'Mahon 
and Marable were employed chiefly in contributing to the 
gratification s of this princely voluptuary. M'Mahon started 
the game, and Marable performed the more tedious part of 
running it down, and, with two such thoroughbred hunters 
on its scent, the chances for an escape amounted to an 
impossibility. Among the stars of the British Court at this 
period was a lady of transcendent loveliness, the wife of a 
Nottinghamshire gentleman, who, shortly after her advent, 
became one of the presiding deities of fashion. 

Her routs were the gayest, the most brilliant of the sea- 
son, and at each of them shone conspicuously the Prince.* 
To effect the conquest of such a woman was now the ultima 

* The following anecdote, -which was related to us by the individual him- 
self, will convey to the reader some idea of the personal charms of this an- 
gelic mortal Mr. Bright was at this time the leading dentist and chiropodist 
of the fashionable world. He belonged to the society of Friends, but, unlike 
the members of that decent and modest community, Friend Bright was known 
to prefer the rosy lips of a lovely girl to witnessing the moving of the spirit 
in the Sunday conventicle. His whole time was spent in the boudoirs of the 
female votaries of fashion, and one day he was called in to exercise his pro- 
fessional skill on the feet of Mrs. M- . Having finished the operation, he 

imprinted a passionate lciss on one of her feet. "Bright!" exclaimed Mrs. 

M , "what do you mean by that?" "Thou wert going to pay me in 

money, friend, wert thou not?" said the chiropodist. " Certainly," answered 

Mrs. M ; "what i.; your demand?" " I have taken my payment," said 

Bright; "and for the same will I attend upon thee at any time." — Huish, 



378 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 

thule of the wishes of the Prince, and M'Mahon was set to 
work to lay the foundation for the acconrplishnient of the 
act. It may appear contrary to the manners of the present 
day, but, at the period of which we are now writing, there 
were certain houses in the vicinity of town, the resort of 
the gay and profligate, and at which persons of the highest 
rank did not think themselves degraded in being seen ; for, 
where all are engaged in the same pursuit, there is no door 
open for mutual crimination, nor for a public exposure of 
the delinquency. The favorite house of Colonel M'Malion 
and Mr. Marable, where it was their custom to make their 
assignations with those ladies whose charms had made an 
impression on the susceptible heart of their royal master, 
was the Horse and Grooni at Streatham, then kept by a 
man of the name of Higginbottom, who afterwards re- 
moved to the British Hotel, Jermyn street. To this house 
the beautiful Mrs. M was invited, for the avowed pur- 
pose of joining a hunting party, an amusement to which it 
was well known she was exceeding partial. For some reason, 
however, which M'Mahon, if he had pleased, was well able 
to solve, the hunting expedition did not take place on the 

day of invitation ; but Mrs. M found at the house a 

select party, which was composed of the immediate com- 
panions of the Prince, and preparations appeared to be 
making for an entertainment of a princely character. The 
artful intriguer began to apply his despicable arts; the 
poison of adulation was instilled into the too credulous ear 
of the lovely woman; and the effect which her superlative 
beauty had made upon the heart of the most amiable and 
accomplished individual of the kingdom was painted in such 
rapturous colors that vanity, the most powerful, and, at 
the same time, the most dangerous, weakness of the female 
sex, arose with all its mastery in her breast, and the victory 
was half won ere the despoiler came to rob the shell of its 
pearl, never to regain its original brightness and splendor. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 379 

It was growing late, and the party were about to return 
to town, when a carriage and four, the horses covered with 
foam, drove up to the door of the inn for the ostensible 
purpose of refreshing the jaded animals, and Colonel 
M'Mahon, who was then standing at the window with Mrs. 

M , immediately recognized the carriage to belong to the 

Prince, who was alone in it. 

There was apparently no disposition on the part of the 
Prince to alight, for who could suspect for a moment that 
there was any premeditation, any preconcerted plan, in his 
arrival at the Horse and Groom, at the critical moment 
when a party, of whom he was not supposed to possess any 
previous knowledge that they were actually in the house, 
were on the eve of their departure for town. Nothing, on 
the first view of it, could be more natural or more common 
than that the Prince, on his way from Brighton, should 

stop to refresh his horses ; and, in regard to Mrs. M , it 

must not be concealed that she felt a secret pleasure in be- 
ing thus thrown accidentally into the immediate society of 
the most amiable and accomplished gentleman of the country, 
on whose heart her charms were said to have made so deep 
an impression. Not truer is the needle to the pole than 
woman to the love of conquest ; but the great difficulty lies 
in maintaining that conquest after it is made, and perhaps 
with no individual was that difficulty greater than with the 

Prince. The heart of Mrs. M -, however, beat with 

some strange emotions when she beheld Colonel M'Mahon 
assisting him to alight, and in a few miuutes afterwards 
usher him into the room in which she was sitting. To fol- 
low the interview through all its minute details would be 
to depicture a scene on the one hand of the most heartless 
protestations of an excessive, unbounded love, and, on the 
other, of all the trembling fears, the hesitation, the almost 
suffocating emotions which sway the female breast, when 
virtue is struggling for the mastery against the impetuous 



380 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

tide of passion, which in force increases every moment, 
whilst fainter and fainter becomes the opposition, until the 
eventful hour arrives, and the splendid fabric, which stood 
beauteous and bright in the morning ray, presents, ere 
midnight comes, an object of ruin and desolation. 

Mrs. M returned to town in the Prince's carriage ; 

but we will not follow them to the haunts of their guilty 
pleasures, sufficient will it be to expose the termination of 
this amour, which threatened to unsettle the reason of one 
of the parties ; and, if the heart of the other had not been 
so cauterized by a continual course of libertinism as to 
render it impervious to the finer feelings of our nature, a 
pang must have been inflicted upon it which would re- 
quire the duration of his after life to appease. 

It was morning, and the Prince and his beautiful com- 
panion were sitting at breakfast, when the conversation 
happened to turn on certain events in the life of the Prince, 
as explanatory of some acts in which he had been engaged, 
and of which perhaps he wished to exculpate himself in the 
opinion of his then admired favorite. " I know," said the 
Prince, li that I suffered much at the time in the public 
estimation. My enemies — for I believe no man has had a 
greater number than myself — stigmatized me at the time as 
the actual murderer of the boy ; but it was proved that, 
although he had received a severe chastisement from my 
hands, yet that his immediate death was not the result of 
it. The provocation which I received was sufficient to 
arouse the irascibility of the most phlegmatic person, and I 
afterwards discovered that he was suborned by the Count- 
ess of Jersey, in one of her jealous fits, to trace my steps in 
order to detect a little affaire de cceur in which I was en- 
gaged with a beautiful girl in the vicinity of Brighton. 
And having now mentioned that once beloved favorite to 
you, I cannot refrain expressing to you that there is some- 
thing in your shape and figure, in the very form of your 



THE PRIVATE LIKE OF A KING. 381 

countenance, and in your very manners, that strongly re- 
minds me of her." 

" Was she allied to nobility % n asked Mrs. M . 

" Of her immediate station in life," answered the Prince, 
u I knew but little. She represented herself, and was known 
in the fashionable circles, as the daughter of a respectable 
Yorkshire gentleman of moderate fortune. But I fre- 
quently heard her speak of her two sisters, one of whom 
she depictured as far surpassing herself in personal attrac- 
tions. What that sister must have been in beauty I can- 
not pretend to say ; but I will so far confess that I con- 
sidered Louisa Howard as one of the most perfect beauties 
I had ever seen." 

"Louisa Howard!" exclaimed Mrs. M , whilst an 

ashy paleness came over her countenance. 

"And what of her P asked the Prince. " Did you know 
her t» 

" Gracious God !" exclaimed Mrs. M , scarcely able to 

maintain herself; " and have I then been sacrificing my- 
self to the seducer of my own sister ?" 

"Louisa Howard your sister!" exclaimed the Prince — 
" it cannot be." 

" Oh ! it is all too true," exclaimed Mrs. M . " I had 

forgotten many things which now rush upon my memory 
to show me my own guilt. When Louisa became a victim 
to your stratagems, I was then but just bursting into life. 
I heard the whispers of her dishonor, but never to this 
moment did I know the name of him who brought it upon 
her. For her I weep not — for she is happy. It is for my- 
self I weep. I stand now a dishonored, a guilty, wretched 
creature, shut out from future happiness, a loathing to 
self, the merited scorn and hatred of a malignant Wo 

Leeforth there is no desert too dark for me, no solitude 
too deep. I shudder when I think of it, that to my sister's 
seducer— to him who dragged her like a lamb to be immo- 



382 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

lated on the altar of his unhallowed passion — to him have 
I now sacrificed all that is dear, all that is valuable to 
woman. From this moment we part to meet no more. 
Seek out for another victim , and add another crime to 
your already overloaded soul." 

They did part to meet no more. This beautiful woman 
disappeared on a sudden from the world of fashion, like 
one of those coruscations of heaven, bright and glorious 
for a moment, when on a sudden not a trace of it is to be 
seen — lost, annihilated, for ever.* 

Deeply must the Prince have felt (that is, if a libertine 
has any feelings but what originate in his own gratification) 
when he perused the following lines, the composition of a 
highly gifted female ; there is a dagger in every line, and 
the heart from which they emanated must have suffered 
much ere it could bring itself to such severity of reproof: 

(; Awaken ! awaken ! 'tis more than the dead 

That bids thy dark slumber itnseal ; 
'Tis a heart that has withered, a heart that has bled, ' 
A lip whence the dew of forgiveness had fled, 

Bids thee hear what thou never wilt feel. 

Awaken ! awaken ! thy adamant trance 

Shall avail naught in moment like this ; 
Know'st thou not of a victim, whose perishing glance 
Might well o'er thy profligate threshold advance 

To blast all its brightest of bliss ? 

* Robert Huish says in his Memoirs : " In the year 1805 we were in com- 
pany with this angel votary of fashion, this matchless specimen of feminine 
beauty. The worm that gnaweth at the heart had despoiled the cheek of its 
roseate hue, and had robbed the eye of the greater portion of its brilliant 
fire ; but still the knee might have been bent before her as an object worthy 
of worship and adoration. It was visible, by the melancholy which over- 
shadowed her brow, that the knell of her terrestrial happiness had rung, 
and that ere long she would be called upon to join her kindred sisters in 
another world. She still appeared as the elegant remnant of a masterpiece 
of creation, when nature found that in her formation she come too near an 
inhabitant of heaven, and threw away the mould forever. She has long 
been the tenant of a grave, but it will be long ere earth will see her like again." 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 383 

Thy victims are wide ; have I witnessed thy worst ? 

Lo! all thou gavest is thine ; 
The blood thou hast lent to be harrow'd and curst, 
A torrent of vengeance upon thee shall burst, 

Here I leave thee the tribute of mine. 

No! not for the pride and the power thou can'st see 

Shall that voice in its waking be hush'd ; 
No ! not for the thousands who smile upon thee, 
To hallow thy crimes, and who shudder at me 

For unshrouding the hearts thou hast crush'd. 

Oh ! that reptiles like thine should have power to control 

The thorn of one life on its stem, 
To poison and crush the best thoughts of the soul, 
Then deafen and drive it with calumny's howl 

For an echoing world to condemn." 

Some characters are very like certain bodies in chemistry, 
they may, perhaps, be very good in themselves, yet they 
fly off and refuse the least conjunction with each other. 
Carlton House was the domicile of many such characters, 
and, with the exception of one pursuit, Mr. Marable is the 
very type of them. He was, it is true, not so ambitious as 
Sir Frederick Watson, although the faithful secretary was 
not badly rewarded for his services; his station in the 
household had a considerable salary attached to it 5 he was 
one of the commissioners of the Hackney Coach Office ; and 
his brother, until the Board of Customs for the three king- 
doms became consolidated, held an appointment in Ireland of 
about £1,500 per annum ; and the secretary himself derived 
a still more considerable income from his offices, and par- 
ticularly as a reward for his secret services. 

The Prince had now become King, and it has been said 
that the King should be allowed the choice of his own ser- 
vants, and that it was the height of presumption to dictate 
to him by whom he shall be served. u But we do abrogate 
from the King any right to squander away a considerable 
sum of money in rewarding persons of no public merit," 



384 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

said a writer of the times, " selected from the purlieus of 
the Court ; uor should he influence any appointments in the 
public departments, which generally supersede long stand- 
ing merit, and which, in such cases, are generally filled by 
the nominee of the favorite courtesan for the time being. 
If the King has a surplus income to dispose of, who has so 
great a right to receive it back again as those who gave it?* 
Why should the people be taxed to reward the procurer, to 
enrich the auxiliary, and to fill our public offices with, the 
creatures of the royal pleasures ? and all in defiance of the 
dignity of virtue, the decency of public morals, and the 
injury of men whose meed 

"Is won 
By all the useful acts they have done ;" 

and whose lionesty and probity should claim and enjoy the 
fruits of their experience and labor, if not elbowed out by 
vice and injustice into obscurity and solitude, and, per- 
haps, reduced to indigence and want." 

If such services as Mr. Marable rendered were deserving 
of any reward he surely was not overpaid. If he possessed 
any sensibility, his last hours must have been embittered 
by the remembrance of his villanous conspiracy, resulting 
in the ruin of a most estimable lady, the wife of a respect- 
able merchant, who we will not name out of regard to living 
connections of the family. This lady was a most beautiful 
and amiable woman, who, at one time, was the reigning 
toast of the day. The result of her acquaintance with, the 
Prince, brought about through Marable, may be easily 
foreseen. The husband soon got intoxicated with the smiles 
of royalty. To bask in the sunbeams of a prince's favor — 
to be announced in the fashionable publications of the day 

* We write this at a time when the sovereign of England enjoys an annual 
income of £1,200,000 ! and the expenditure of the country is fifty-eight mil- 
lions ! to pay which the people of it are taxed in the proportion of seventy 
pounds in every hundred gained by their industry. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 385 

as a member of the convivial parties of Carlton Honse — to 
be acknowledged by the Prince of Wales in the drives of 
Hyde Park, where one fool follows another, merely to try 
which can be the greater fool of the two — where is the head 
that would not grow giddy with such an accumulation of 
honor, with such a sudden transit from the soot of the city 
to the meridian splendor of a Court? But he might say 
with the poet : 

" At once my high blown pride 
Broke under me, and all my pleasure left me, 
Sudden, and sad, and angry, to the mercy 
Of a long tongue that must for ever haunt me." 

Her ruin was determined upon j and an easy access to 
the board of the infatuated, inflated husband was obtained 
for the usual class of the Prince's friends. The sequel is 
deeply tragical. She died broken-hearted for the loss of 
her honor, and the husband languished in prison till his 
death. 

" To labor in fulness 
Is sorer than to lie for need ; and falsehood 
Is worse in kings than beggars." 

It is impossible to dwell upon the preceding narratives 
and conceive that the sensual powers of one man could 
survive amid such a series of excitement. 

It has been said of this profligate Prince that his exam- 
ple was too secluded to operate dangerously on the manners 
of the people. As a monarch, the saying may have some 
truth in it ; but as a Prince, and as such we are now de- 
scribing him, we will venture to say that the example which 
he, set, as far as his influence could extend, went further to 
the demoralization of society than any prince recorded in 
the pages of history. Can the idea be for a moment enter- 
tained that such a man was surrounded by none but moral- 
ists, and that the intellectual wants of a Court, from day 
to day, and from hour to hour, could be supplied by such 
it 



386 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

men as those whose characters we have already deci- 
phered — the same men whose chief support was to pro- 
Tide for far less meritorious pleasures ; and the only shrine 
at which they knelt was that of the reigning Lais of the 
palace. Is it possible that such an example as this should 
not be productive of the most baneful effects ? Society is 
like the carved globe of the Chinese ; it has its concentric 
circles, each possessing its specific individuality, and grad- 
ually diminishing to a centre point. We will suppose that 
pofnt in society to be the point of royalty, and the very 
next circle to be that of the nobility ; is it then possible 
that the circle of the nobility should not be influenced by 
the example of royalty f and, in a regular gradation, that 
the plebeian circle should not take its form and pressure 
from the example of the nobility. To the arguments of 
those who may inquire what benefit can accrue from the 
exposure of those incidents of the private life of George 
IV, which we have treated in a more extended manner 
than more partial historians who have glossed over these 
facts, we would say that, where the private vices of any 
individual high in authority affect the public morals, they 
should be exposed. In this age of inquiry, when the delu- 
sions of history are unveiled, it is time that the true char- 
acter of the subject of these memoirs should be known ; 
the private lives of rulers belongs to the world as much as 
their political history. There are at this present moment 
documents in existence which, when they are brought to 
light, as they inevitably must be, will place certain great 
personages upon pedestals of an entirely different charac- 
ter than those. they now occupy in the niches of history. 

At this period, the house of Taylor, the shoemaker, in 
Bond street (as appeared in evidence afterwards, in the 
affair of Mrs. Clarke and the Duke of York), was a noted 
rendezvous for fashionable intriguants. The master of the 
house, " nothing loth," would either aid or connive at the 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 387 

meetings appointed there ; and he has been known to suc- 
ceed, when every other channel has failed, to complete the 
delusions of his most fashionable customers. Among 

the latter was the beautiful Lady K- . She was the 

daughter of a country gentleman of good fortune, on whose 
education the utmost care had been bestowed, in order to 
confirm what nature had ingrafted oh a heart of peculiar 
tenderness and sensibility. In her twentieth year she 
became the wife of Lord E , thirty years older than her- 
self, afflicted with an hereditary gout, but an accomplished 
and amiable man, formed to cement, perhaps, the friend- 
ship of a woman more than to awaken those kindlier sym- 
pathies with which youth, and pleasure, and flattery glad- 
den the heart and the imagination in the dayspring of a 
woman's life. Intelligent, grateful, and ardent, she grew 
attached from principle, and a mutual passion was recip- 
rocated, based on an affection springing from the estima- 
tion of each other's virtues. 

Young, beautiful, and interesting, Lady E soon 

became an object of fashionable admiration ; and, although 
seldom seen abroad when her lord was confined by the 
periodical attacks of the gout, still circumstances carried 
her sometimes into society while he remained at home ; and 
on one of these occasions, at Hertford House, she had the 
honor of being introduced to the Prince of Wales, and both 
of them seemed mutually gratified by the introduction. A 

short time after this interview, Lord E went to Bath, 

taking his lady with him, but who in a few weeks returned 
to town on some family affairs, which afforded the first 
opportunity for the Prince to commence his long meditated 
attack. 

A military man, in the person of General Turner, was 
appointed to commence the siege ; and, meeting with her 
ladyship accidentally at an evening party, he took the 
opportunity of intimating to her the sensible impression 



388 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

which she had made on the heart of his royal master, insin- 
uating, at the same time, the unbounded respect which Her 
Boyal Highness entertained for her husband ; but, at the 
same time, he confessed that the difficulty was almost 
insuperable of rooting out those involuntary feelings, which 
insensibly combined the finest movements of the affections. 
Lady E— — was a woman, and therefore, perhaps, not 
insensible to the flattery so copiously showered upon her ; 
but the emotion was fugitive, and on the following day she 
intended to join her lord at Bath. 

Prior to her ladyship quitting town, she called at Taylor's, 
in Bond street, to leave an order which it was her intention 
to carry back with her to Bath ; and the obsequious trades- 
man appointed the next day for her ladyship to call for it. 
She was punctual to the appointment, when, by various 
arts, in which the tradesman was a finished adept, her lady- 
ship was induced to walk up stairs, where, however, she 
was scarcely seated, before, from an adjoining room, the 
Prince of Wales threw himself at her feet, with protesta 
tions of the most ardent love. But the scene was too dra- 
matic to succeed with a woman of honor and sensibility. 
The royal lover was repulsed with dignity and modest reso- 
lution ; and, although the attempt was afterwards made by 
every concession that could reconcile her ladyship to grant 
him a parting interview, yet the Prince could never succeed, 
and he retired, abashed and discomfited, to commence an 
attack in a different quarter. To the honor of the noble 
lord and his lady, it must be stated, that up to the very 
hour of the King's death neither of them could be persuaded 
to visit his Court, nor kiss the hand of a man who had 
sought to destroy their peace and. honor. si sic omnia ! 

From these scenes of private profligacy and deep moral 
degeneracy we turn to others of a graver import, but which, 
in the extent of their criminality, stand the most conspicu- 
ous in the history of the "illustrious" subject of these 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 389 

memoirs. If any event were wanting to finish the body of 
the picture which the Court of the Priuce of Wales exhibited 
at this time, it was that one which now occurred, surpass- 
ing in extravagance and cruelty the crimes and perjuries of 
Henry VIII. We allude to the conduct adopted towards 
an unhappy and defenceless woman, his wife, Queen Caro- 
line. We regret that the nature of our work admits of little 
more than the sketch of an episode that must hereafter fur- 
nish the most grave and important chapter in the future 
history of his short but eventful reign. 

It is impossible to look back upon the intrigues described, 
and the character of the actors who played their parts 
therein, and uot form some decided opinion in regard to the 
number of the agents of all ranks who lent themselves to 
"this most foul and damnable conspiracy."* Men and 
women of the highest rank, lawyers of eminence, and 
their hireling understrappers, even clergymen of honest 
repute, and the whole of the Prince's Court, without excep- 
tion, from Lord Moira (who, in this business, lost "the fame 
of a thousand years ") down to the doorkeeper and the scul- 
lery wench, combined to destroy one lone woman; whilst 
her husband, rioting in wantonness and voluptuousness, 
openly or sincerely encouraged the attacks, which had for 
their end her death on the scaffold ! Even the cradle in which 
her infancy was reared was ransacked for nursery tales ; 
and ere the Princess Caroline could lisp the name of love, 
or reason and passion develop materials wherewith to 
adjudge her character, her infancy was slandered, and her 
puberty corrupted by the inventions of her enemies. By 
what course of tortuous policy was such a woman selected 
for the arms of such a reprobate as the Prince? Who 
advised the connection, or what must that man have been 
who consented to accept of it ? < 

* The keyhole espionage of the Milan Commission, proved during the trial of 
Queen Caroline, is unparalleled in legal testimony for its infamy. 



390 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

It is, however, now well known, and a matter of history, 
that the whole of the tales concerning the young Princess 
were fabricated in England by the companions of the Prince 
of Wales and the creatures of his will. Two individuals 
were given lucrative offices — one at the Cape of Good Hope, 
and the other at Botany Bay (who, if he had his deserts, 
should have been sent thither in a different capacity) — 
whose only services rendered to the country, which was 
taxed to pay their salaries, consisted in the exertions which 
they used to prove that the virgin character of Caroline of 
Brunswick was tainted ere nature had implanted in her 
breast a single idea of love or passion. In a Court every- 
thing is predicated to gratify the wishes of its master ; if he 
frowns, where is the courtly sycophant who dare be seen to 
smile ? If from his Pandemonium he issues his mandate 
for the immolation of a victim, uprise the executors of his 
will, as erst the spirits of hell rose from their sulphurious 
fires at the voice of Satan, and the deed is done, though 
lasting infamy follow them through every path of their 
future life. 

If we examine the condition of the Court of Carlton 
House at the arrival of the Princess of Brunswick in Eng- 
land, what a scene presents itself! We find Lady Jersey, 
the dominant indoor favorite, by whose intrigues Mrs. 
Fitzherbert had withdrawn, giving up to the former lady 
the suite of apartments which she had occupied, and from 
which apartments the Prince was seen retiring one morning 
by his own wife. We find Mrs. Fitzherbert still the outdoor 
favorite, with a number of minor satellites, according as 
the purveyors succeeded in their search for novelties ) we 
find John M 'Mali on Privy Purse, grand caterer for the 
royal pleasures, the confidant of the Prince, and his most 
obsequious and pliant parasite. The interminable link 
of courtesans and their paramours was struck from the 
grasp of the panderer, and the Prince sighed over the frag- 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 391 

ments of the Oircean cup which this illfated marriage had 
dashed from his lips.* 

There is a sobriety in the union of the sexes, when virtue 
is the foundation, which is little calculated to please the taste 
of the voluptuary. The very stillness of the palace — the de- 
corum of its domestic arrangements — the change of society, 
and those nameless graces of modesty which steal so imper- 
ceptibly upon the heart of man, could not survive in such 
a tainted atmosphere without being corrupted by it ; all 
this was acknowledged and foreseen, but not provided 
against. The mistress of his illicit pleasures was introduced 
by the Prince to the confidence of the wife $ nor was there 
a creature of the establishment changed who had aided 
in its former excesses or shared in its pollutions. The em- 
braces of the wife were less exciting than those of the 
courtesan, and the coldness of the husband paralysed 
that wild tumult of the affections which subsides into senti- 
ments of purity and connubial love. Disgust on the one 
side, and indifference on the other, ended in a separation, 
which endangered the State, and brought on the ruin of the 
woman whom from the first it was designed to destroy. 

Of the subordinate actors in this great national tragedy 
we know not how to speak with even common moderation. 
By their conduct the character of England and of English- 
men became impeached ; it was pronounced as the syno- 

* Robert Huish. He further says in his famous Memoirs, from which 
we quote: "We have been informed that the exposition of the birth, 
parentage, and education of John M'Mahon, given in a former part of this 
work, has excited towards us the severe wrath of the surviving branches 
of his family. The exposure may be to them 'bitter as wormwood;' but 
we tell them, fearlessly, that we will not conceal the flagrant actions of 
their relative, as the panderer of the Prince of Wales, to gain either their 
favor or their approbation. It is the vice we reprobate, not the individual. 
But the family of John M'Mahon should be grateful to us — what we 
have hitherto stated is not a tithe of what we know ; and, therefore, w© 
consider ourselves entitled to their most special favor for our forbearance." 



392 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

nynie of all that was base, treacherous, and vile 5 the 
native spoke of it with shame, the foreigner with scorn 5 
loyalty fell to a discount, and allegiance was regarded as a 
thing of mere question and expediency. If there were 
strong appearances of guilt in the conduct of the Princess, 
still appearance is not fact. It requires something more 
than mere semblance to establish positive crime ; and until 
that crime be proved, by unimpeachable, incontrovertible 
evidence, the accused is fully entitled to all the privileges 
and consideration which innocence can lay claim to. If 
she did err, let her separation, her exposure, her enemies, 
and especially some of her friends, be considered $ let her 
origin, her education, her prospects, her disappointments, 
her provocations, be taken into account $ let the characters 
of the emissaries employed against her be properly esti- 
mated, and the charges which they were instructed to 
prove j and if the head did not madden, and the heart 
break, with the accumulated injury, they must have been 
made of sterner stuff than it falls generally to the lot of 
mortals to be composed of. 

There was a time when delicacy for the living, and a de- 
sire not to disturb the peace of the country, prompted us 
to be silent on certain deeds connected with this deepest of 
England's tragedies ; * but, as those reasons exist no more, 

* It has been stated that Huish, the author of the suppressed History of 
George IV, was given office and a pension by the Prince to hold him from 
telling what he knew of the secret career of the Prince, as he was in a 
position to see and hear much that was not desirable for the public to 
know. He says : "In a work published by Fairman, and written by an 
individual in the service of Queen Caroline (but how she got there, Heaven 
best can tell,) and which was intended as recriminatory on the part of her 
Majesty, we are made to enjoy the honor of being a pensioner on the 
privy purse of the late King of £100 per annum, not as a reward for 
what we did say in a certain book, but for what we did not say ; and in 
the same authentic work we are made the participator in the delinquency, 
in conjunction with a servant of the royal family, of the name of Sims, 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 393 

we are not bound by any further restriction. It may, then, 
be said of us : 

" This man's brow, like to a title leaf, 



Foretells the nature of a tragic volume. 

So looks the strand whereon th' imperious flood 

Hath left a witness'd usurpation." 

Perhaps there is not anything which tends more to sap 
the moral principles of a family than the want of concert 
between the parents. This is felt more or less in all classes 
of society, though its effects are more fatal to the lower 
than the upper ranks of the people. The manners of the 
Court of the Prince had already seduced a number of fol- 
lowers, gay and reckless as the Prince himself, to courses 
highly injurious to the conservative moral principles which 
unite society in a common obligation to protect each other. 
In this instance nothing could be more afflicting than the 
situation in which the heiress presumptive to the throne 
was placed, in a national point of view, by the unnatural 
state which subsisted between the father and the mother, 
and which her own magnanimity could alone have repelled 
and mitigated. This magnanimity had, however, nearly 
proved fatal to her own character and principles. It may 
scarcely appear credible, but we vouch for the accuracy of 
the statement, although publicity has never yet been given 
to it, that insinuations were actually conveyed abroad to 
several of the German principalities in alliance with the 
House of Brunswick that the legitimacy of his wife's child, 
the Princess Charlotte, was doubtful ; and thus, in order to 
accomplish the ruin of the mother, the child was not spared, 

of breaking open the desk of the late Princess Charlotte of "Wales, for 
the purpose of extracting the celebrated letter written to her by her ill- 
fated mother — which letter, by some means, fell into the hands of the late 
Queen Charlotte, and was the chief cause of that deadly feud which ever 
after existed between them. More of this letter anoD. In the meantime, 
the pension and the felony have a similar foundation in truth." 
17* 



394 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

on whose head the crown was to devolve in case of her 
father's decease, how greatly soever the British throne was 
implicated in the fall. 

One of the most memorable epochs in the life of the 
Prince, and, it may be added, in the history of modern 
nations, is the conspiracy which was got up against the 
Princess, and which there is little doubt, but for the force 
of popular opinion, would have ended, according to Eng- 
lish law, in her death on the scaffold, like the unfortunate 
Anne Boleyn. It began so early as 1801, when the Princess 
was living at Montague House, where she formed an 
acquaintance with Lady Charlotte Douglas, which was 
productive of most extraordinary results. Volumes were 
written concerning them ; the interest and anxiety of 
the nation were roused to a state of excitation scarcely 
paralleled at any former period in its history; and 
in order to substantiate some of the alleged occurrences, 
which are asserted to have taken place at Montague House, 
such a tissue of falsehoods was asserted, and ultimately 
published, as is rarely, if ever, been heard of in any civil- 
ized community. These statements, and the transactions 
connected with them, have been usually designated as the 
Douglas Conspiracy. 

Of Lady Charlotte Douglas, the chief contriver of and 
actress in this extraordinary drama, the following bio- 
graphical particulars have been obtained. Her grandfather 
was an attorney at Gloucester, whose name was Charles 
Barrow, and who was created a baronet in consequence of 
his connection with the corporation of that city. Sir 
Charles acquired a large fortune ; he was, however, never 
married, but he left several daughters, one of whom, the 
mother of Lady Douglas, married a private soldier, named 
Hephinson or HopMmon, who was soon made a sergeant, 
and afterwards, by the interest of Sir Charles, he obtained 
the situation of army agent. He subsequently became a 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 395 

colonel, possessed of considerable wealth, and a fine estate 
near Gloucester. Mr. Douglas, whilst on the recruiting 
service at Gloucester, being then a lieutenant of marines, 
became acquainted with Miss Hopkinson and married her, 
but at what period is not precisely known. According to 
Lady Douglas's statement, their courtship must have been 
a long one, as she says that she waited for Sir John nine 
years. 

In the month of April, 1801, Sir John and Lady Douglas 
went to reside at Blackheafch, because the air was better 
for Sir John after his Egyptian services, and it was some- 
what nearer Chatham, where his military duties occasion- 
ally called him. The person of Lady Douglas was hand- 
some — she certainly appeared much younger than her 
husband ; but the effects of his severe campaigns had pro- 
duced in his countenance and in his general health an early 
senescence. 

It may be here also necessary to introduce the name of 
Sir Sidney Smith, another prominent personage in this sin- 
gular affair. When the Princess first became acquainted 
with him is not exactly known ; but Lady Douglas stated 
that she understood the Princess knew Sir Sidney before 
she became Princess. However, soon after Sir John and 
Lady Douglas went to reside on Blackheath, and also soon 
after Sir Sidney Smith's return to England from the Medi- 
terranean, his visits to Sir John and Lady Douglas, from 
his previous intimacy with the former, became very fre- 
quent ; in short, he became, as Lady Douglas said, a part 
of the family. 

That jealousy, on the part of Lady Douglas, was one of 
the moving causes of her subsequent conduct, there can be, 
however, no reasonable doubt. It should not be forgotten 
that Sir Sidney Smith has not, at any period, come publicly 
forward to repel any of the insinuations which have been 
made relative to his conduct at Montague House $ his con- 



396 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

nection with the Douglases will, it is presumed, fully ex- 
plain the cause of his silence. 

The intimacy of Lady Douglas with the Princess of Wales 
continued from the month of November, 1801, till about 
Christmas, 1803 ; at which time the Douglases left Black- 
heath and went into Devonshire. In the month of October, 
1804, they returned, when Lady Douglas left her card at 
Montague House, and on the 4th of the same month received 
a letter from Mrs. Vernon, desiring her not to come there 
any more. After receiving Mrs. Yernon's letter, Lady 
Douglas wrote to the Princess on the subject, but it was 
sent back unopened. Lady Douglas remarked, in her sub- 
sequent statement, " I had never, at this time, mentioned 
the Princess being with child, or being delivered of a child, 
to any person, not even to Sir John Douglas." 

This assertion, however, is untrue; for it was in conse- 
quence of some observations of Lady Douglas reflecting on 
the characterand conduct of the Princess, and communi- 
cated to her, that the visits of Lady Douglas were ordered 
not to be repeated at Montague House. Nor was this the 
sole reason for the conduct of the Princess ; but the levity 
and improper behavior of Lady Douglas, which was a sub- 
ject of general animadversion in the circle in which she 
moved, additionally determined the Princess on relinquish- 
ing her acquaintance altogether. But for this determina- 
tion on the part of Her Royal Highness, Lady Douglas 
would have continued her intimacy at Montague House. 

The visits of Sir Sidney Smith to Montague House, at this 
time, were more frequent than was agreeable to Lady 
Douglas ; and, whenever he was spending the evening there, 
her domestics observed that she was agitated and vexed. 
But Lady Douglas expressly stated in her deposition that 
she never observed any impropriety of conduct between 
Sir Sidney Smith and the Princess. 

It unfortunately happened for the Princess that she had, 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 691 

about this time, adopted a child of a poor woman of the 
name of Austin. Concerning the birth and parentage of 
this boy there fortunately has not been the least doubt 
since first the matter was investigated. But Lady Douglas 
thought this a fit opportunity to assume and assert that this 
child was the offspring of the Prifecess 5 and to convey to 
the then heir apparent an account of the conduct of his wife 
(long since, it is true, living apart from him, and whom, in 
fact, though not in law, he had repudiated,) which, as stated 
by Lady Douglas, was so wicked and indecent that, if true, 
demanded from the Prince and the country severe animad- 
version and reproof, not to say the ulterior proceeding of a 
regular and legal divorce, accompanied possibly with the 
higher and dreadful penalty which awaits the crime of high 
treason. But, if the alleged transactions had even been 
true, of all persons in the world Lady Douglas was the last 
who should have betrayed her friend and benefactress— a 
Princess whose benevolence knew no bounds but the utmost 
limit of her means — a Princess who had heaped on the 
Douglases innumerable favors and kindnesses; who had 
fostered them in her bosom, without being aware that they 
would soon forget all her kindnesses and become her secret 
accusers and the projectors of her utter ruin. 

The gross misrepresentations of Lady Douglas influenced 
the Duke of Sussex, early in November, 1806, to acquaint 
the Prince of Wales that Sir John had communicated to 
him circumstances relative to the conduct of the Princess 
which were of the utmost consequence to his honor, adding 
that the Duke of Kent, father of Victoria, had a partial 
knowledge of the affair a year before. This information 
resulted in an interview between the Prince and the Duke 
of Kent, in which he requested the Duke to give him a dis- 
tinct statement of the transaction, inquiring why he had 
kept so long silent upon a subject so vitally affecting the 
honor of the royal family. 



398 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

The Duke of Kent, in a written declaration, stated that, 
about the end of the year 1804, he had received a note 
from the Princess, stating she had got into an unpleasant 
altercation with Sir John and Lady Douglas about an 
anonymous letter and a filthy drawing which they imputed 
to her, and about whifeh they were making a noise. She 
requested the Duke of Kent to interfere, and prevent its 
going further. 

His Royal Highness applied to Sir Sidney Smith, and, 
through him, had an interview with Sir John Douglas, who 
was greatly enraged, and who seemed convinced that both 
the anonymous letter and the loose drawing were by the 
hand of the Princess ; and that the design was to provoke 
Sir John Douglas to a duel with his friend, Sir Sidney 
Smith, by the gross insinuations flung out respecting the 
latter and Lady Douglas. The Duke of Kent, however, 
succeeded in prevailing on Sir John Douglas to abstain 
from his purpose of commenciug a prosecution, or of stirring 
further in the business, as he was satisfied in his mind of 
the falsehood of the insinuations, and could not be sure 
that the fabrications were not some gossiping story in 
which the Princess had no hand. Sir John, however, 
spoke with great indignation of the conduct of the Prin- 
cess; and promised only that he would abstain from fur- 
ther investigation, but could not give a promise of pre- 
serving silence should he be further annoyed. The Duke 
of Kent concluded with stating that nothing was com- 
municated to him beyond this fracas ; and that, having 
succeeded in stopping it, he did not think fit to trouble His 
Eoyal Highness with a gossiping story that might be 
entirely founded on the misapprehension of the offended 
parties. 

It is particularly worthy of notice that Sir John Douglas, 
in the communication which he made to the Duke of Kent, 
did not refer to any conduct of the Princess, except relative 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 399 

to the anonymous letter and the drawing 5 although he and 
Lady Douglas subsequently deposed to her pregnancy and 
delivery, and other immoral transactions, which, in their 
depositions, they state to have been previously committed. 

Shortly after this, Sir John and Lady Douglas made 
formal declarations, not only to this anonymous letter, but 
also relating generally to the conduct of the Princess dur- 
ing their acquaintance with her. These declarations were 
made before the Duke of Sussex, and are dated Green- 
wich Park, December 3, 1805. They contained in sub- 
stance the matter to which Lady Douglas subsequently 
deposed, and which will be noticed hereafter, but were com- 
bined with much more grossness and improbability. 

These declarations were submitted by the Prince to the 
late Lord Thurlow, who said that His Eoyal Highness had no 
alternative — it was his duty to submit them to the King, as, 
if the allegations were true, the royal succession might be 
thereby affected. In the meantime it was resolved to make 
further inquiry, and a Mr. Lowten, Sir John Douglas's 
solicitor (whose selection was most extraordinary,) was 
directed to take steps accordingly. The consequence was, 
that William and Sarah Lampert (servants to Sir John 
Douglas,) William Cole, Eobert and Sarah Bidgood, and 
Frances Lloyd made declarations, the whole of which, 
together with those of Sir John and Lady Douglas, were 
submitted to His Majesty. Having perused them, and 
advised with Lord Thurlow, he issued his warrant, dated 
the 29th of May, 1806, directing Lord Erskine, Lord Gren- 
ville, Earl Spencer, and Lord Ellenborough to inquire into 
the truth of the allegations, and to report to him thereon. 

It appears, however, that, although in this affair the Prince 
at first acted upon the advice given to him by Lord Thur- 
low, his lordship himself advised the Prince to consult Sir 
Samuel Eomilly. The Prince's motives for so doing were 
(as Sir Samuel many years afterwards stated, in his place 



400 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

in the House of Commons,) because he, Sir Samuel, was 
unconnected with the Prince and generally with politics. The 
information which the Prince had received relative to the 
conduct of the Princess was accordingly submitted to Sir 
Samuel Romilly for his advice ; and, after having considered 
it with the utmost care and anxiety, he addressed, in 
December, 1805, a letter to the King containing his senti- 
ments on this important subject. After he gave that 
opinion, Sir Samuel said that the King took every possible 
means to ascertain what credit was due to the parties 
whose testimony had been given. In the change of Admin- 
istration which shortly followed after the death of Mr. Pitt, 
Sir Samuel Romilly was appointed Solicitor General, and in 
March, 1806, he received the King's commands to confer 
with Lord Thurlow on this matter ; and in a short time 
afterwards the alleged charges were submitted to some of 
the King's ministers, and an authority was then issued to 
certain members of the Privy Council. 

Sir Samuel Romilly also, at the same time, stated that he 
was the only person present, besides the Commissioners, at 
all the examinations which were conducted by the four 
noble lords mentioned, he taking down all the depositions. 
He thought that he was selected for this purpose in prefer- 
ence to the Attorney General, merely because, if it should 
not be found necessary to institute any judicial or legisla- 
tive proceedings upon it, it was desirable that the utmost 
secrecy should be observed. He declared, in the most 
solemn manner, that no inquiry was ever conducted with 
more impartiality, nor was there ever evinced a greater 
desire to discharge justly a great public duty. He subse- 
quently stated that he was present at all the examinations 
but one, which was the last, and that was of Mrs. Lisle. 

The Commissioners in this investigation were prompt in 
proceeding according to the King's command. The Com- 
mission was dated the 29th of May, and on the 1st of June 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 401 

Lady Douglas and Sir John made their depositions. It has 
since been ascertained that all the witnesses were examined 
separately, and enjoined to the strictest secrecy. Mrs. 
Austin was sent for at ten o'clock at night from Pimlico to 
Downing street, and conveyed there by one of Lord Gren- 
ville's servants ; she never communicated the fact of her 
examination to any person, not even to the Princess, till 
the year 1813. 

On the 14th of July the Commissioners made the follow- 
ing report to His Majesty, which deserves, and should 
receive particular consideration : 

" May it please your Majesty — 

" Your Majesty having been graciously pleased, by an instrument, under 
your Majesty's royal sign manual, a copy of which is annexed to this^report, 
to authorize, empower, and direct us to inquire into the truth of certain 
written declarations touching the conduct of Her Royal Highness the Prin- 
cess of Wales, an abstract of which had been laid before your Majesty ; and 
to examine upon oath such persons as we should see fit touching and con- 
cerning the same, and to report to your Majesty the result of such examina- 
tion. We have, in dutiful obedience to your Majesty's commands, proceeded 
to examine the several witnesses, the copies of whose depositions we have 
hereunto annexed ; and, in further execution of the said commands, we now 
most respectfully submit to your Majesty the report of these examinations, 
as it has appeared to us. But we beg leave, at the same time, humbly to refer 
your Majesty, for more complete information, to the examinations themselves, 
in order to correct any error of judgment into which we may have uninten- 
tionally fallen with respect to any part of this business. On a reference to 
the above mentioned declarations, as the necessary foundations of all our 
proceedings, we found that they consisted of certain statements, which had 
been laid before His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, respecting the 
conduct of Her Royal Highness the Princess ; that these statements not only 
imputed Co Her Royal Highness great impropriety and indecency of behavior, 
but expressly asserted, partly on the ground of certain alleged declarations 
from the Princess' own mouth, and partly on the personal observation of the 
informants, the following most important facts, viz. : That Her Eoyal High- 
ness had been pregnant, in the year 1802, in consequence of an illicit inter- 
course ; and that she had, in the same year, been secretly delivered of a male 
child, which child had, ever since that period, been brought up by Her Royal 
Highness in her o w house, and under her immediate inspection. 



402 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

" These allegations, thus made, had, as we found, been followed by decla- 
rations from other persons, who had not indeed spoken to the important facts 
of the pregnancy or delivery of Her Royal Highness, but had related other 
particulars, in themselves extremely suspicious, and still more so when con- 
nected with the assertions already mentioned. In the painful situation in 
which His Royal Highness was placed by these communications, we learnt 
that His Royal Highness had adopted the only course which could, in our 
judgment, with propriety be. followed. "When informations such as these had 
been thus confidently alleged, and particularly detailed, and had been in some 
degree supported by collateral evidence, applying to other points of the same 
nature (though going to a far less extent), one line could only be pursued. 
Every sentiment of duty to your Majesty, and of concern for the public wel- 
fare, required that these particulars should not be withheld from your 
Majesty, to whom, more particularly, belonged the cognizance of a matter of 
state so nearly touching the honor of your Majesty's royal family, and by 
possibility affecting the succession of your Majesty's crown. Your Majesty 
had been pleased, on your part, to view the subject in the same light, con- 
sidering it as a matter which, on every account, demanded the most imme- 
diate investigation. Your Majesty had thought fit to commit into our hands 
the duty of ascertaining, in the first instance, what degree of credit was due 
to the informations, and thereby enabling your Majesty to decide what 
further conduct to adopt concerning them. On this review, therefore, of 
the matters thus alleged, and of the course hitherto pursued upon them, we 
deemed it proper, in the first place, to examine those persons in whose 
declarations the occasion for this inquiry had originated, because if they, 
on being examined upon oath, had retracted, or varied from their assertions, 
all necessity of further investigation might possibly have been precluded. 
We, accordingly, first examined on oath the principal informants : Sir John 
Douglas, and Charlotte, his wife — who both positively swore, the former to 
his having observed the fact of the pregnancy of Her Royal Highness, 
and the latter to all the important particulars contained in her former decla- 
ration, and above referred to. Their examinations are annexed to this report, 
and are circumstantial and positive. The most material of those allegations, 
into the truth of which we have been directed to inquire, being thus far 
supported by the oath of the parties from whom they had proceeded, we 
then felt it to be our duty to follow up the inquiry by the examination of 
such other persons as we judged best able to afford us information as to the 
facts in question. We thought it beyond all doubt that, in this course of 
inquiry, many particulars must be learnt which would be necessarily con- 
clusive on the truth or falsehood of these declarations — so many persons 
must have been witnesses to the appearance of an actually existing preg- 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 403 

nancy; also, many circumstances must have been attendant upon a real 
delivery, and difficulties, so numerous and insurmountable, must have been 
involved in any attempt to account for the infant in question as the child 
of another woman, if it had been, in fact, the child of the Princess, that we 
entertained a full and confident expectation of arriving at complete proof, 
either in the affirmative or negative, on this part of the subject. 

" This expectation was not disappointed. "We are happy to declare to 
your Majesty our perfect conviction that there is no foundation whatever for 
believing that the child now with the Princess is the child of Her Royal 
Highness, or that she was delivered of any child in the year 1802 ; nor has 
anything appeared to us which would warrant the belief that she was preg- 
nant in that year, or at any period within the compass of our inquiries. 

" The identity of the child now with the Princess — its parents, age, the 
place and the date of its birth, the time, and the circumstances of its being 
first taken under Her Royal Highness' protection — are all established by such 
a concurrence, both of positive and circumstantial evidence, as can, in our 
judgment, leave no question on this part of the subject. That child was, 
beyond all doubt, born in the Brownlow Street Hospital, on the 11th day of 
July, 1802, of the body of Sophia Austin; and was first brought to the 
Princess' house in the month of November following. Neither should we be 
more warranted in expressing any doubt respecting the alleged pregnancy 
of the Princess, as stated in the original declarations — a fact so fully contra- 
dicted, and by so many witnesses, to whom, if true, it must in various ways 
be known, that we cannot think it entitled to the smallest credit. The testi- 
monies on these two points are contained in the annexed depositions and let- 
ters. "We have not partially extracted them in this report, lest, by any unin- 
tentional omission, we might weaken their effect ; but we humbly offer to 
your Majesty this, our clear and unanimous judgment upon them, formed 
upon full deliberation, and pronounced without hesitation, on the results of 
the whole inquiry. "We do not, however, feel ourselves at liberty, much as 
we should wish it, to close our report here. Besides the allegations of the 
pregnancy and delivery of the Princess, those declarations, on the whole of 
which your Majesty has been pleased to command us to inquire and report, 
contain, as we have already remarked, other particulars respecting Her 
Royal Highness, such as must, especially considering her exalted rank and 
station, necessarily give occasion to very unfavorable interpretations, from 
the various depositions and proofs annexed to this report ; particularly from 
the examinations of Robert Bidgood, Wilham Cole, Frances Lloyd, and Mrs. 
Lisle ; your Majesty will perceive that several strong circumstances of this 
description have been positively sworn to by witnesses who cannot, in our 
judgment, be suspected of any unfavorable bias, and whose veracity in this 
respect we have seen no ground to question. 



404 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

u On the precise bearing and effects of the facts thus appearing, it is not 
for us to decide ; these we submit to your Majesty's wisdom ; but we con- 
ceive it to be our duty to report on this part of the inquiry as distinctly as on 
the former facts ; that as, on the one hand, the facts of pregnancy and deliv- 
ery are to our minds satisfactorily disproved, so, on the other hand, we think 
that the circumstances to which we now refer, particularly those stated to 
have passed between Her Royal Highness and Captain Manby, must be 
credited until they shall receive some decisive contradiction; and, if true, 
are justly entitled to the most serious consideration. We cannot close this 
report without humbly assuring your Majesty that it was, on every account, 
our anxious wish to have executed this delicate trust with as little publicity 
as the nature of the case would possibly allow ; and we intreat your Majes- 
ty's permission to express our full persuasion that, if this wish has been dis- 
appointed, the failure is not imputable to anything unnecessarily said or 
done by us ; all which is most humbly submitted to your Majesty. 
" (Signed), Erskine, 

" June 14, 1806. Spencer, 

U A true copy, I. Becket." Grenvtlle, 

Ellenborough." 

It is to be lamented that this solemn, though secret 
inquiry, should appear to have originated in His Eoyal 
Highness, the heir apparent, because, as it was universally 
known, he had for a long time lived apart from the Prin- 
cess $ and, from the letters which passed between them in 
1806, morally he could have no right to institute any 
inquiry into the conduct of his wife. But it is said he had 
advisers, and two of these were Lord Thurlow and Sir 
Samuel Eomilly. 

After giving due weight to both these gentlemen's 
opinions, it is evident that that advice must have been 
bad, which, when acted upon, tended to lower the heir 
apparent to the throne in the eyes of the people, to whom 
it is always desirable that they should look with respect 
and esteem. Whether, on account of the nation, such an 
inquiry, on the mere statements of Sir John and Lady 
Douglas, ought to have been instituted, is another ques- 
tion ; but the Prince should not .have been made the most 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 405 

prominent party in it — indeed, he ought not to have ap- 
peared in it at all. It appears, however, that too ready 
credence was given to the statements of the Douglases ^ for, 
although two of their servants, the Lamperts, were ex- 
amined (of whose examinations nothing is known, and 
therefore no observations can he made upon them,) yet, if 
other servants, who were living, or had lived, with Sir John 
and Lady Douglas at the period when they were intimate 
with the Princess, had been examined, a very different com- 
plexion would have been given to the whole affair, as the 
real character of Lady Douglas must, by these means, have 
been known. Whoever, therefore, advised and promoted 
this inquiry, under the impression that they were discharg- 
ing " a great public duty," here, at any rate, evinced a great 
dereliction of it. 

The commission itself was one of those anomalies in juris- 
prudence, of which it is to be hoped no repetition will ever 
occur. In the first place, it was secret, and the secrecy 
alone is its sufficient condemnation. The witnesses were 
examined separately, and enjoined to secrecy. One was 
taken from her home to be examined at ten o'clock at 
night. The accused was not present, either by herself or 
by her counsel, consequently no proper cross examination 
could take place. It must occur to everyone that, if the 
Princess appeared to be guilty of the high treason which 
was laid to her charge by Lady Douglas (admitting, under 
the peculiar circumstances of the case, that her conduct 
ought to have been inquired into,) it was the bounden duty 
of those who had the welfare of the state in their hands to 
have instituted a solemn and a public examination and trial 
of the accused lady. Nothing short of this ought to have 
been attenrpted. The very existence of a secret tribunal, 
and the mode of examining the witnesses, excite much 
suspicion. The Princess complained most strongly, in her 
letter to the King, of such tribunals. They have, indeed, 



406 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

a taint in their nature from which it is not possible by any 
sophistry that they can ever be freed. 

As the Princess had been for many months, in conse- 
quence of this investigation, excluded from the royal 
family, and from any communication with the King, who 
had always shown the greatest disposition of any branch 
of his illustrious house to do her justice, she naturally ex- 
pected that, after the report of the Commissioners and the 
letter containing her defence, that the King would receive 
her as he had formerly been accustomed to do. After 
waiting nine weeks from the period of the transmission of 
her defence to His Majesty, she wrote him a letter, dated the 
8th of December, 1806, complaining of not having heard 
from His Majesty, and most feelingly deplored the delay. 

On the 28th of January, 1807, she received a note from 
the King, informing her that it was no longer necessary for 
him to decline receiving the Princess into his royal pres- 
ence j that he saw with satisfaction the decided proof of the 
falsehood of the accusation of pregnancy and delivery 
brought forward against her by Lady Douglas, but that 
there were other circumstances stated against her which he 
regarded with serious concern $ and he desired and expected 
that such conduct might in future be observed by the Prin- 
cess as might fully justify those marks of paternal regard 
and affection which he always wished to show to every part 
of the royal family. The King added that he had directed 
that copies of the proceedings should be communicated to 
the Prince. 

The next day the Princess wrote a note to the King, 
requesting permission to wait upon him the Monday follow- 
ing at Windsor, or that he would name some other early 
day for that purpose. To this a reply was returned the 
same day from Windsor, informing her that the King pre- 
ferred receiving her in London, upon a day subsequent to 
the ensuing week, and of which he would apprise her. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 407 

On the 10th of February the Princess received a note 
from the King, purporting that, as the Princess might have 
been led to expect from the King's letter to her, he 
would fix an early day for seeing her, the King thought it 
right to acquaint her that the Prince, upon receiving the 
several documents concerning her conduct, made a formal 
communication to him of his intention to put them into the 
hands of his lawyers, and praying that His Majesty would 
suspend any further steps in the business until the Prince 
should be enabled to submit to him the statement which he 
proposed to make. The King, therefore, deferred naming 
a day until the result of the Prince's intention should be 
known. 

To this note the Princess, on the 12th, addressed a letter, 
beseeching the King to recall his last determination, and 
informing him that she should, without delay, represent to 
him the various grounds upon which she felt the hardship 
of her case. She said, after suffering the punishment of 
banishment from the King for seven months, pending an 
inquiry affecting both her life and her honor ; after the ter- 
mination of that inquiry, and the opinion of his sworn ser- 
vants, that there was no longer any reason for the King 
declining to receive her ; after all this, she now found a 
renewed application on the part of the Prince, upon whose 
communication the first inquiry had been directed j and that 
that punishment, which had been inflicted pending a seven 
months' inquiry, was to be continued, and that she was to 
wait the result of some new proceeding suggested by the 
legal advisers of the Prince. 

On the 16th of the same month, the Princess, according 
to her last communication, sent the King a long letter, 
explaining the various grounds on which she felt the hard- 
ship of her case. 

On the 5th of March the Princess transmitted another 
letter to the King. She began by informing him that she 



408 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

liad hoped to have heard from him, and to have received 
his commands to pay her duty to him in his royal presence. 
That hope being disappointed, she determined to wait a 
few days longer before she took a step, which, when once 
taken, could not be recalled. Having, however, assured 
herself that the King was in town on the 4th, and not hav- 
ing received any command to wait upon him, she abandoned 
all hope, and informed the King that the publication of the 
proceedings alluded to would not be withheld beyond the 
Monday following. 

Soon after this letter was sent, the ministry, of which 
Lord Grenville was the head, retired from office, and were 
succeeded by those who were confessedly the friends of the 
Princess. It was, therefore, natural to suppose that the 
most complete justice would be done her. The new Admin- 
istration was formed of the very men who had so resolutely 
and so fully espoused and defended her cause, and who so 
openly and undisguisedly declared to the King their full 
conviction of her innocence. She was well aware that the 
great obstacle to her reception at Court rested with her 
mother-in-law, and so long as the Grenville Administration 
remained in office, which was known to be favorable to the 
views of the Queen, no hopes could be entertained of her 
restoration to her dignity and rank at Court. 

In less than a month after the new ministers came into 
office the Princess was by them wholly exonerated from the 
accusations brought against her, and, in consequence, the 
Princess was received at Court, and apartments were 
assigned to her in Kensington Palace. She was not, how- 
ever, on the same footing either at Court or in the royal 
family as she had formerly been. It was remarkable that 
when she appeared at Court on the King's birthday, the 
4th June, 1807, as she passed through the presence cham- 
ber and other rooms where the spectators were assembled, 
they received her with clapping of hands, and on her return 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 409 

from the drawing room the same mark of respect was shown 
her. Such an occurrence in such a place is very extraordi- 
nary and unusual. Her triumph was now, therefore, com- 
plete ) and, having gained the object of her wishes, she 
seldom appeared at Court, except on the King's birthday ; 
she lived almost in a state of complete estrangement from 
the royal family, and dedicated her time to acts of benevo- 
lence and the improvement of her own mind. 

With these proceedings the matter, as far as the public 
was concerned, appeared to be set at rest 5 but the fiends 
of malignity were set privately to work, and the Princess 
was surrounded by a set of pretended friends, but who 
were, in reality, spies placed upon her conduct by the 
Countess of Jersey, who became the depositary of all the 
scandal that was collected, of all the misrepresentations 
that were invented, and of all the falsehoods that were 
fabricated. With her budget of infamy she hastened to 
the Prince, to whom she knew it would be a welcome offer- 
ing ; he gloated over the contents, and secretly triumphed 
that his victim was so fast hastening to her ruin. The 
Prince did not understand the character of Lady Jersey, or 
he was blind to her vices ; or, otherwise, if he had diligently 
and impartially considered the representations made to 
him — had he analyzed them in the alembic of truth or 
probability — he would have seen their constituent principles 
to have been selfishness, malice, and revenge. 

In regard to the members of the royal family, the house 
became divided against itself. The Queen and the Prin- 
cesses espoused the cause of the Prince ; the King that of 
the Princess. The former abstained from her society, as if 
it exhaled some contaminating influence 5 the latter not 
only patronized her, but solemnly ratified his approval of 
her conduct by frequently paying her a visit. The latter cir- 
cumstance gave great offence to the Prince, and called forth 
his severest animadversions. The breach which had been 

18 



410 



THE PRIVATE LIPE OP A KING. 



lately closed up between the father and the son now threat- 
ened to be far more extensive than on any other previous 
occasion. When they met, their acknowledgments partook 
more of the character of the new and formal acquaintance 
than of the affectionate intercourse between parent and 
child ; on the ccuntenance of the former sat the frown of a 
father's anger ; on that of the latter was visible the dis- 
dainful look of a person laboring under a supposed serious 
injury. 

That the conduct of George III, in requiring the marriage 
of the Prince, was unwise, improper, and impolitic, cannot 
be disputed. He lived to deplore his determination, and 
sincerely did he regret it. 

From this theme of national disgrace we turn to a subject 
of melancholy reflection — the death of Pitt and Fox, which 
took place in this year, 180G. The characters of these 
statesmen, so identified with the life of George IY, are 
too well known to nee4 here more than a passing allusion. 
With Sheridan they formed a triumvirate of brilliant 
genius such as never since has illuminated the legislative 
halls of England. 




Royal Espionage. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 411 



ffitotrtw %m. 



The year 1809 was distinguished by the memorable 
charges against the Duke of York, so often alluded to in 
our work, of which other writers have failed to give so 
full an account as we shall present in our pages. 

There was a gay member in the House of Commons, and 
who, in America, we would call a " fast young man," and, of 
course, knew perfectly well what was going on in gay society 
in London. He was Colonel Wardle, a Welshman, and had 
married a lady of large fortune, and was going through the 
same as fast as possible. He had received a cut either from 
the Begent or his equally profligate brother, the Duke of 
York ; in revenge, he thought he would ventilate before the 
British nation the private scandalous doings of at least one 
of the u honored" members of the royal family. On the 
27th of January, 1809, he rose in his place in the House of 
Commons, and threw a bombshell into the midst of debate 
by making some startling charges against that redoubtable 
commander, the Duke of York, regarding his private life, 
which involved a question of great national importance. 

He said the royal Duke had become infatuated by a 
beautiful married lady by the name of Mary Ann Clarke, 
and, by lavish offers, had induced her to take up her abode 
in a splendid establishment, and become his mistress, to 
the great scandal of the virtuous British nation ; and, in 
part payment for the prostitution of her beautiful person to 
his royal passion, had, and was allowing her to traffic, not 
only in her charms, but in commissions and promotions, in 
the noble British army of which he was commander, u very 



412 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

much in the style of Lady Marlborough when her husband 
was in a similar position." 

This announcement created a great excitement in the 
House, but the excitement was still greater when he con- 
continued, " Nor was this all ; her trafficking is not in the 
army alone, not in the commissions of soldiers, but also in 
the livings and bishoprics of the Church." He knew of 
a number of individuals now seeking by bribes the influ- 
ence of this ¥ public adultress" to procure from the royal 
Duke certain livings and bishoprics as well as positions in 
the army. This raised a great commotion ; the friends of 
the noble Duke tried to ward of discussion, but without 
avail. Sir Francis Burdett, who was of the same party 
with Colonel Wardle, seconded the latter's motion when 
he demanded a committee to make inquiry, and to enable 
him to prove his assertions. The appointment of a com- 
mittee was strenuously opposed by the ministers, as many, 
no doubt, well knew of the truth of the allegations, and 
they used every exertion to put down all inquiry. A Mr. 
York essayed a speech, in which he said the whole affair 
was a conspiracy, and was introduced, not out of the love 
of virtue and good name of the royal family, but simply 
as an inspiration of Jacobinical principles and party 
malice. 

Lord Castlereagh, in order to stave off all the main ques- 
tion regarding the Duke and the frail beauty, entered into 
an elaborate praise of his capital management and improve- 
ments in the army, not denying, as he should have done, 
the truth of the charges. Wardle was not to be put off; 
he came again to his feet with the profligate Mrs. Clarke and 
her doings; he had not arraigned the army, but only the 
amorous Commander-in-Chief, who, in turn, was himself com- 
manded by Mrs. Clarke; so that the great British realm en- 
joyed the humiliating spectacle of their gallant army being 
led by a London prostitute ! A terrible commotion was 



THE PRTVATE LIFE OF A KTNG. 413 

raised both in Parliament and out of it, as the journals of 
the day illustrate. The gallant Colonel Wardle was deter- 
mined that the whole scandalous proceeding should receive 
a thorough investigation by an inquiry of Parliament, 
through a regular constituted committee. High authority 
for the improvement in the army was brought by the Duke's 
friends, the ministers, to -prove that the condition of the 
army was very much improved ; that when he took com- 
mand he found it the worst organized in Europe, and by his 
skill he had brought it to be the best. The authority for 
this, they said, was Sir Arthur Wellesley ( afterwards the 
famous Duke.) This all was well enough so far as it went, 
and a very good set-off against the charges, but did not 
meet them ; for, in fact, the charges were notoriously true, 
as far as the influence the beautiful harlot exercised over 
her royal paramour. The opposition came back to the main 
question regarding Mrs. Clarke, and of her selling commis- 
sions in the army and livings in the Church, etc. 

Here we are led to the reflection to what an abject state 
ministers of the Gospel and teachers of the Christian reli- 
gion must have been brought to by the monarchical system 
of government, in this enlightened age, to solicit a living 
over a religious congregation from a known public prosti- 
tute. How could they stand up in the presence of their 
people, before the altar of the Most High, and read these 
words of the decalogue, "Thou shaltnot commit adultery," 
without a pricking of conscience, when they had procured 
the situation in their holy calling through one whose very 
living was obtained by the constant infraction of the holy 
pr-cept ! 

The scandal of the immorality of the sinful connection 
was not once alluded to. The good Wilberforce, of all the 
members, appeared particularly shocked at the wickedness 
and crime involved ; but other members thought little of it 
in this light. The details, which certain members well 



414 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

knew would create surprise and indignation among the reli- 
gious portion of the community, they wished to keep from 
the knowledge of the public ; and the great philanthropist 
proposed, for the sake of morality, that all the hideous and 
indecent details should be confined to a select committee, 
as the exposure thereof would have a most evil effect upon 
the morals of the public. 

Canning said the whole affair was infamous either to one 
party or the other, and declared that infamy must attach 
somewhere, either to the accused or the accuser. It should 
fall where it belonged. The House was of Canning's opin- 
ion also, and determined that wherever the infamy was to 
fall it should have a full airing and publicity of a commit- 
tee of the whole House, which was appointed to commence 
the inquiry. The noble Duke appeared to make light of the 
affair 5 but, before the finality was reached, he had to suc- 
cumb to the ignominy the expose brought upon him. He 
discovered to his sorrow that " the lips of a strange woman 
drop as a honeycomb 5 her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp 
as a two-edged sword." 

A great excitement was now created throughout England 
in anticipation of the developments which were expected on 
the forthcoming examination. 

On Wednesday, the 1st of February, 1809, the examina- 
tion commenced. Mandates were sent out to the fascinat- 
ing harlot to appear before the high and mighty of the 
realm. She obeyed the summons, and in an elaborate 
toilet drove to the House, and appeared before the bar pre- 
cisely at the time appointed. Her appearance created 
a sensation. She was perfectly composed and unabashed, 
and of equal gracefulness of manners, of wit, and impu- 
dence. She swept into the House as if she was one of 
the most exalted peeresses of the land. She made a low, 
fashionable obeisance to the " noble, grave, and reverend 
seignors" in the highest style of theatrical grace, and 



THE PRIVATE LIF1< OP A KING. 415 

seemed to carry away the members captive at once by her 
peculiar fascinations and peerless beauty. This is some- 
what remarkable, for she was not now young, but of a 
mature, matronly age, and for years had lived under the 
" protection" of one distinguished gentleman or other, and 
had been the well known mistress of several before she 
came in the possession of the noble Duke of York. Her 
costume was in exquisite taste, in the highest style of art 
and fashion, and, of course, of the richest material. The 
eyes of the whole House were upon her, and she withstood 
the questioning without flinching and with great self-pos- 
session, and occasionally u bringing the House down" with 
her ingenious repartees. It must have been a singular 
scene, that fascinating woman before the collected wisdom 
of the most mighty British nation, under such very singular 
circumstances. What a windfall would a like examination 
in Congress be to our reporters and correspondents in 
Washington! What would the American nation say? 
Wouldn't Mrs. Clarke be " interviewed w with a vengeance ! 
She glanced around at the members, among whom there 
were various of her old paramours, and the recognition 
that her speaking looks gave them at once pointed them 
out. Her examination continued for days, and the wit and 
the cleverness of her replies, and the cool and good humored 
style of her demeanor — never ruffled, never put out, but 
giving keen hits in return for any exposures which were 
made of her conduct — carried not only the members out of 
their decorum, but made her at once an object of intense 
curiosity out of doors. Mrs. Clarke was the heroine of the 
day. The reformers regarded her as one of themselves, 
because she was helping them to expose the Duke, who had 
been a steady enemy of every innovation of Church and 
state. They were willing to forget that she had been doing 
her best, so long as the Duke continued his connection with 
her, to abuse the institutions of the country, and to enrich 



416 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

herself by the worst corruptions. Whenever she appeared 
on her way to and from the House, she was followed and 
surrounded by crowds, who rushed pellmell to get a sight 
of her, as though she had been the most virtuous woman in 
the country. She was sung all over London in admiring 
ballads ; the boys ceased to cry " heads or tails " at chuck 
farthing, but "duke or darling," because a Miss Mary 
Anne Taylor, on her examination, said she had often heard 
the Duke call Mrs. Clarke " darling.' 7 The Speaker of the 
House found it almost impossible to preserve order, such 
was the laughter and applause of the members at the witty 
sallies or cutting retorts of the charming adultress — an 
epithet at which she only smiled pleasantly when inciden- 
tally applied to her by the counsel. The following jeu d J esprit 
of the amiable Mary Anne convulsed the House with laugh- 
ter. A Mr. Taylor, the Duke's shoemaker, of Bond Street, 
had been employed by him as go-between, and he had 
taken a fine house for her in Gloucester Place, and fur- 
nished it by the Duke's orders. When the Attorney Gen- 
eral asked her who brought her a particular message, she 
replied, " A particular friend of the Duke's." " Who was 
he *P asked the Attorney General. " Mr. Taylor," she 
replied, " the shoemaker of Bond Street." (At this there 
was a laugh.) "By whom did you send your address to 
the Duke f " By my own pen." " 1 mean, who carried 
the letter f " The same ambassador." " What ambassa- 
dor P " Why, the Ambassador of Morocco /" It was in 
vain, at this reply, that the Speaker thundered, " Order ! 
order !" and threatened Mrs. Clarke with the displeasure of 
the House. 

It appeared very clear that the Duke had permitted her 
to traffic in the sale of commissions, and both Mrs. Clarke 
and Mary Anne Taylor, whose brother was married to Mrs. 
Clarke's sister, asserted that the Duke had received part of 
the money for some of these bargains. Sums of one thou- 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINGK 417 

and pounds, of five hundred pounds, and two hundred 
pounds had been paid to her for such services. She had 
not only made her brother but her foot-boy an officer in 
the army ; and the bargainings with the clergy were par- 
ticularly scandalous — the particulars of which may be seen 
in all the newspapers of the time, and in the u Edinburgh 
Annual Register" of 1809. 

It was too late now to save the Duke's reputation. The 
House of Commons had concluded its examination in March. 
It acquitted the Duke of any participation in the vile 
profits on the sale of commissions with his artful mistress, 
but that she had made such there was no question 5 and 
Wilberforce gave great offence to the royal family by 
declaring that this was not a time, when all the countries 
on the continent were lying at the feet of Buonaparte, for 
our Commander-in-Chief to be so easily made the dupe 
of a woman j that the French Emperor stuck at no means 
of gaiuing his ends, and he could afford to pay an insinuat- 
ing woman at an enormous price — at that of making a 
duchess or a princess of her — who should be able to get 
into the confidence of such a commander, and draw from 
him the most important secrets of the state. The Duke did 
not await the decision of the Commons, but resigned his 
office. Lord Althorpe, in moving that, as the Duke had 
resigned, that the proceedings should go no further, said 
that the Duke had lost the confidence of the country for- 
ever, and therefore there was no chance of his ever return- 
ing to that situation. This was the conclusion to which 
the House came on the 21st of March, and, soon after, Sir 
David Dundas was appointed to succeed the Duke as 
Commander-in-Chief, much to the chagrin of the army, and 
equally to its detriment. The Duke, though, like his 
brother, very profligate, and, like him— according to a 
statement made during the debates on his case— capable, 
as a youth, of learning either Greek or arithmetic, but not 

18* 



418 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

the value of money, seems to have discharged his duty to 
the army extremely well, of which old G-eneral Dundas was 
wholly incapable. 

The corruptions connected with the Duke of York and his 
mistress were but a small fragment of the wide and univer- 
sal system that was existing. A demand was made for 
some law to prevent the high and mighty from prostituting 
their exalted positions to thus obtain money by the sale of 
commissions, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer brought 
in a bill which was passed afterwards and prevented any 
fascinating female having the like opportunity to traffic in 
the livings of the Church or promotions in the army. 

The Duke was now disgraced in his conduct. He dis- 
covered to his sorrow that the wiles of a u strange woman 
go down to death, her steps take hold of hell, and that 
his u honor was given unto others." 

A singular finale occurred to this affair, as was brought to 
light some time afterwards, and still further illustrates the 
wisdom of Solomon in his advice to his son guarding him 
against the mysterious ways of the u strange woman." 

It appears that after the trial Col. Wardle received 
numerous votes of thanks from many meetings both in the 
city and country, and had gained great popularity by caus- 
ing the investigation and putting it to a successful issue. 
Unfortunately for the gallant Wardle his charming witness 
perfectly fascinated him, and eventually he fell under the 
bewitching influence of the artful woman. After the trial 
the Duke, from the notoriety she had given his connection 
with her, discarded her, and the virtuous Wardle took her 
under his own protection — notwithstanding he was a mar- 
ried man with an estimable wife. He took a new and ex 
pensive house for her in Westbourne Place, and furnished 
it in a most lavish fashion. She ran up extravagant bills, 
which, for awhile, he paid without murmurs, but she be- 
coming too extravagant they quarrelled, and tiiis led to a 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 419 

grand expose. She had purchased some magnificent fit- 
tings from Mr. Wright, the popular and fashionable up- 
holsterer in Bathbone Place, and the Colonel refused to 
pay the bill. Mr. Wright instituted legal proceedings to 
compel payment of his bill, and summoned his paramour 
as a witness against him. The lovely Mrs. Clarke appeared, 
although Wardle endeavored to prevent her — but failed. 
He endeavored to stop the trial, but did not succeed, and 
his 'whole conduct was as fully exposed before the Court 
and public as had been the Duke of York's before Parlia- 
ment, and the fickle female was as vindictive against the 
humble Colonel as she was on the previous occasion against 
the noble Duke. Mrs. Clarke deposed that it was with his 
knowledge that she bought the goods, and had not only 
gone with her to do so, but had told her he wished to com- 
pensate her for the invaluable aid she had rendered in the 
prosecution of the Duke. Here again the evidence of this 
treacherous siren carried the day, for the gallant Colonel 
lost the suit, which, with the costs thereof, amounted to 
£2,000 ($10,000). For him it was a rueful expose. Too 
late for his reputation, he discovered the wisdom of the 
scriptural maxim that the arts of an abandoned woman are 
past finding out — that " thou canst not know them." 

Greville describes the Duke of York as having the least 
of the vices which were unfortunately characteristic of his 
royal brothers. His connection with Mrs. Clarke and its 
consequences were his principal deviations from rectitude. 

If, it is argued, the Duke did not participate in the 
profits arising from the traffic of his mistress in the sale of 
commissions, indirectly he was a gainer, inasmuch if these 
resources had not been available the supply must have been 
furnished from his income. How j)rofitable this infamous 
trade became may be inferred from Mrs. Clarke's schedule 
of prices: $4,500 for a Majority ; $3,500 for a Captaincy ; 
Lieutenancy, $2,000, and an Ensigncy, $1,000. 



420 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

There was much corruption and abuse connected with 
our volunteer recruiting and substitute provision in the late 
rebellion, but nothing so hideous in its character as this. 

That the Duke of York was the dupe of an artful, 
intriguing, and talented woman cannot for a moment 
admit of a doubt ; in fact, there were few whom she did 
not make her dupes, if her own interests could be pro< 
moted by it $ but it was the circumstance of her attempt to 
involve the subject of these memoirs in the accomplishment 
of her plans, which rendered it imperative on our part to 
enter into this detail of one of the most important eras in 
the history of this country, as far as the members of the 
royal family were concerned. 

u The Prince having received an anonymous letter, stat- 
ing that the writer had some very important communica- 
tions to make, the trusty John M-Mahon was despatched 
to No. 14 Bedford row, Eussell square, whence the note 
was dated. There he was introduced to a lady, who began 
to question him respecting any knowledge which he pos- 
sessed of Mrs. Clarke ; 4 and, having denied that he had 
any personal knowledge of lier, he was then questioned as 
to the knowledge which he possessed of her character. 
The courtier, however, saw not through the snare that was 
laid for him and expressed himself in very disrespectful 
terms of the lady, concluding with the observation that 
nothing which he had heard tended to her advantage. 
The lady whom he was addressing, and to whom he had 
given such a questionable character of Mrs. Clarke, was 
Mrs. Clarke herself! and John M'Mahon stood before her 
abashed and confounded. He begged her a thousand par- 
dons for the portrait which he had drawn of her, but he 
disclaimed being the painter. " I know it well," said Mrs. 
Clarke, with all that fascination of which she was the 
mistress, and in which, perhaps, she excelled more than 
any other woman of her peculiar condition ; tt I know," 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 421 

said she, "who have drawn iny character to you; it is 
Adams and Greenwood; " and she then proceeded to enter 
upon the business for which the interview was desired. It 
was evidently the aim of Mrs. Clarke to engender enmity 
between the Prince and the Duke of York, but on what 
grounds, or on whose account, M'Mahon refused to dis- 
close when he was examined on the subject at the bar of 
the House of Commons, of which he was a member for the 
rotten borough of Aldeburgh, in Suffolk • and, at the same 
time (although it is enacted by the Legislature that no per- 
son holding any office or employment under Government, 
from which is derived any profit or emolument, shall be 
deemed eligible for a seat in Parliament) we find M'Mahon 
member of the Honorable the Council of His Eoyal High- 
ness as Duke of Cornwall, Deputy Warden of the Stanna- 
ries, Auditor and Secretary to the same, Keeper of the 
Privy and Couucil Sealsj Keeper of the Privy Purse, etc., 
etc. At a subsequent period of this most extraordinary 
investigation Mrs. Clarke avoAved herself to be the author 
of the anonymous letter to the Prince of Wales ; and, in 
consequence of the interview w r hich took place between her 
and M'Mahon, a message was sent by the Prince, regret- 
ting that his departure for Brighton would prevent him 
interfering in the business, but that M'Mahon should be 
the mediator between herself and his royal brother. It 
appears, however, that so far from being the mediator, he 
became, under the guise of friendship, the slavish instru- 
ment of extracting particular information from Mrs. 
Clarke, to be afterwards made use of to her injury, when 
a phalanx of power was arrayed against her, which would 
have crushed any spirit, were it a hundred times more firm 
and daring than her own. To show, however, the dupli- 
city of this man, whose character and honor were deemed 
so unblemished as to entitle him to the confidence and 
friendship of the future King of England, we give the fol- 



422 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 



lowing letter, which is but one of a series which was read 
at the table of the House of Commons, from the same per- 
son, and which was purposely done to show M'Mahon's 
character in its proper light : 

" Nothing, Mrs. Clarke may be assured, but indisposition, and wanting iu 
the pleasure of having anything successful to report, could have so long- 
prevented rny calling on or sending to her. 

In whatever communication may have been made to Mrs. Clarke's law- 
yer, I am indignant that such terms as ' either deceiving or laughing at you ' 
should form a part of it, having reference to me; for, while I lament my total 
inability to serve Mrs. Clarke, I am ready to confess that in the few inter- 
views I had the honor to hold with her, her conduct and conversation 
demanded nothing but my respect and the good wishes I bear her. 

J. M." 

The disgrace of the Duke of York threw a deep gloom 
over the happiness of the royal family, and undoubtedly 
was the principal cause which led to the return of the King's 
malady, from which he never rallied. The poet says : 

"Who was it lost Marc Antony the world ? 
A woman I" 



We may parody it, and say : 



"Who was it lost the Duke of York his fame? 
A woman!" 




THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINGr. 423 



mxwttv (&Uvm. 



When Thackeray's lectures on the Four Georges brought 
hini into conflict with the present reigning house he was 
accused of disloyalty. At a dinner party given in his honor 
at Edinburgh , in 1857, he indignantly repelled the accusa- 
tion, at the same time uttering these words : " I believe, for 
my part, in speaking the truth of a bad sovereign, we are 
paying no disrespect to a good one." Lord Keaves, a dis- 
tinguished Scotch jurist, present upon the occasion, replied 
to Thackeray's self-defence, and expressed this sentiment: 
"Iain not sorry that some of the false trappings of royalty, 
or of Court life, should be stripped off. Woe be to the 
country or crown when the voice of truth shall be stifled as 
to any such matters, or when the only tongue that is allowed 
to be heard is that of flattery." These honest words must 
find an echo in every true American heart, but in the circles 
of English aristocracy they were regarded as the quintes- 
sence of social heresy. 

It was at this visit to Edinburgh that Aytoun, the Tory 
editor of " Blackwood's Magazine," on being asked his opinion 
of Thackeray's unpalatable lectures on the Georges, is said 
to have replied : " H — m ! Better have stuck to the 

Jeameses !" 

The first suggestion of these opinions on the Georges 
appeared in Punch several years before the delivery of the 
lectures. It was at the time their statues were prepared 
for the new Parliament palace. " We have been favored," 
said the periodical, u by a young lady connected with the 
Court, with copies of the inscriptions which are to be 



424 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

engraven under the images of those Stars of Brunswick." 
They were all sufficiently satirical, but the severity lay in 
the truth. The first and the last were the most pointed. 
This was for 

"George the First — Star of Brunswick. 

He preferred Hanover to England. 

He preferred two hideous Mistresses to a beautiful Wife. 

He hated Arts and despised Literature ; 

But he liked train oil in his salads, 

And gave an enlightened patronage to had oysters, 

And he had Walpole as a Minister : 

Consistent in his preferences for every kind of Corruption." 

George III is made to say, among other things : 

" Ireland I risked, and lost America ; 
But dined on legs of mutton every day." 

And there are some pathetic lines at the close concerning 
the u crazy old blind man in Windsor Tower" never stir- 
ring while his great guns are roaring triumph, and all Eng- 
land is thrilled with joy at the victory over Napoleon. 

The inscription for George IY is one of the most pointed 
satires of its class ever written : 

" GrEORGIUS ULTIMUS. 

He left an example for age and for youth to avoid, 

He never acted well by Man or "Woman, 
And was as false to his Mistress as to his Wife. 
He deserted his friends and his Principles. 
He had some skill in Cutting out Coats, 
And an undeniable Taste for Cookery. 
He built the Palaces of Brighton and Buckingham, 
And for these qualities and Proofs of G-enius 
An admiring Aristocracy 
Christened him the 'First Gentleman in Europe.' 
Friends, respect the King whose Statue is here, 
And the generous Aristocracy who admired him." 

The appreciation of Thackeray's talents has always been 
qualified by the English aristocracy, which is easy to under- 
stand. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 425 

The publication of the Greville Memoirs has done much 
to destroy " the divinity that doth hedge a king f it is 
not so much what Greville has written, however, as what 
he might have revealed had he been in the interests of 
reformers, that is now causing so much agitation in the 
highest circles of English aristocracy. He has said enough, 
however, to assure us he knew important secrets regard- 
ing the social and political corruption of his time. His rank 
will not protect his memory from the anathemas of the 
nobility, and already their protests are finding voice.* 

The withering satire of Thackeray cut keenly as a sur- 
geon's knife, but the class he pictured with such inimitable 
skill had their privilege of revenge by regarding him as a 
sort of irresponsible literary Bohemian ; but now the reviler 
of England's greatness is one of their own rank. Charles 0. 
F. Greville, the patrician, in whose veins run the bluest 
blood of the realm, a relative of the Earl of Warwick, 
grandson of His Grace the Duke of Norfolk, Clerk of the 
Privy Counciljt the creme de la creme of social and political 
aristocracy, pronounces u the first gentleman of Europe" a 
" dog " and " beast," and applies epithets of the most dis- 
graceful nature to personages who slumber beneath es- 
cutcheoned marble and in the vaults of royal mausoleums. 

We echo the sentiments of American society when we 
argue that, if Greville, with every interest to uphold mon- 
archial institutions, who was farthest from indulging in 
the dreams of radical reform could thus write, are we not 

* The work fairly bristles with points of annoyance. Tt is running over 
with deleterious or dangerous matter, and to hurry edition after edition 
through the press, without regard to consequences, is to act like the lighter- 
man who steers his loosely packed cargo of gunpowder and benzoline through 
a populous district, a fire in his cabin, and a lighted pipe between his 
teeth.— Abraham Hayward in London Quarterly, 1§75. Review of Greville 's 
Memoirs. 

f This office is now held by the most elegant scholar of England, Sir 
Arthur Helps. 



426 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

entitled to credence for the narrations in this work, every 
page of which is authenticated history ? This book will 
favor rather than otherwise the present reigning family, as 
it exhibits so marked a difference between royalty as it was 
and royalty as it is. The simplicity, grace, purity, and 
homelike virtues of Victoria and her late Consort are the 
brightest jewels in England's diadem $ and if there is any 
one motive more than another that could induce us to for- 
get the time-honored axiom, De mortius nil nisi bonum, it 
is this : to impress upon all rulers that their private lives 
should be pure and stainless. What would be frailty in 
less exalted men becomes crime in them, to blight with its 
shadow nations and unborn generations. They live in the 
light of the world, and the slightest deviation from recti- 
tude can have no hope of escaping the avenging eye of 
history. Even in these days of limited monarchy they 
represent tne exponents of law, they are looked to by the 
people as examples, and are by no means as the sign by the 
wayside, pointing the way to others it is not expected to 
travel itself. They should not only avoid evil but the 
appearance of evil in their walk, conversation, and asso- 
ciates. u Caesar's wife must not be suspected." The er- 
mine of royalty should be as stainless as the snow of 
alpine heights. Like master, like man. Human nature is 
so weak and frail that it is ever watching with Argus eye 
to expose the weaknesses of exalted rank, behind which 
it may hope to extenuate its own delinquencies. Mak- 
ing due allowance for the increase of refinement growing 
from the development of aesthetic culture of the past half 
century, who believes that the aristocracy of England of 
the present time is any better in its natural instincts than 
in the reign of George IV? To what, then, can be at- 
tributed the comparative purity of English high life of to- 
day but to the example of its immaculate Queen. 
It is said that in one of the royal Cabinets on the conti- 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 427 

Feb. 5th, 1811, the Prince took the oath of the Regency. 
After this he delivered to the President of the Council a 
certificate of his having received the sacrament. 

The Lord President then approached the Regent, bent 
the knee, and had the honor to kiss his hand. The royal 
dukes followed, and afterwards the Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, and all the rest according to the order in which they 
sat at the long table, advancing to the chair on both sides. 
During the whole of this ceremony the Regent maintained 
the most dignified and graceful deportment j and it was 
remarked that there was not the slightest indication of 
partiality of behavior to one set of men more than io 
another. 

The ceremony being closed, a short levee took place in the 
drawing room, where the Regent addressed himself to the 
circle $ and afterwards he gave an audience to Mr. Perce- 
val, who had the honor of again kissing his hand as First 
Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer. 

The two very magnificent marble busts of the late Duke 
of Bedford and Mr. Fox, which heretofore had orna- 
mented the Prince's sitting room at Carlton House, were 
removed by order of His Royal Highness the Prince Re- 
gent into the Council Chamber, to be placed at the head oj 
the room, a few hours previously to the assembling of the 
council. 

In 1811 the Prince, now installed as Regent, gave a 
splendid fete in honor of the King's birthday, and in the 
interest of artists and artisans who, by the King's illness 
and the consequent deprivation of the patronage which 
Court festivities furnished therefore in their behalf, he re- 
quested his guests to attire themselves in materials of 
home manufacture. In a Republic like ours it can scarcely 
be conceived how the interests of trade and manufacture 
suffer during a period of affliction in the royal family. 
There have not been instances wanting of complaint? 



428 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

against the present Queen for her continued abstinence 
from Court drawing rooms and royal festivities since the 
death of Prince Albert, the preparations for which are the 
means of vast expenditures by the nobility $ the Court of 
George III was as quiet during the Regency as if he was 
already dead, as, indeed, in a political sense he was. This 
fete was as brilliant as the previous seclusion of the Court 
had been gloomy. 

The company began to assemble at nine. The royal 
family, with the principal nobility and gentry, came early. 
The Grecian hall was adorned with shrubs and an addi- 
tional number of large lanterns and patent lamps. The 
floor was carpeted, and two lines, composed of yeomen of 
the guard, the King's, the Regent's, the Queen's, and 
royal duke's servants, in their grandest liveries, formed 
an avenue to the octagonal hall, where yeomen were also 
stationed, and which was decorated with antique draperies 
of scarlet trimmed with gold color and tied up by gold 
colored cords and tassels. In the hall were also assembled, 
to receive the company, Generals Keppell and Turner, 
Colonels Bloomfield, Thomas, and Tyrwhitt, together with 
Lords Moira, Dundas, Keith, Heathneld, and Mount Edge- 
cumbe. The Prince entered the state rooms at a quarter- 
past nine. He was dressed in a field-marshal's uniform, 
wearing the ribbon and gorget of the Order of the Garter, 
and a diamond star. The Duke of York was dressed in a 
military and the Duke of Clarence in a naval uniform. Just 
after the Prince came in the royal family of France arrived, 
who had been driven out by the citizens of that country 
who preferred a republic to a rotten monarchy, and were 
received most graciously. Louis XVIII appeared in the 
character of the Comte de Lisle. During the evening the 
Prince Regent passed from room to room, devoid of all cere- 
mony, conversing with the utmost cheerfulness with his 
guests. The general amusement of the company for some 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 429 

time was perambulating the halls and apartments on the 
principal floor. The grand circular dining room excited par- 
ticular admiration by its cupola, supported by columns of 
porphyry, and the superior elegance of the whole of its 
arrangements. The room in which the throne stood was 
hung with crimson velvet, with gold laces and fringes. The 
canopy of the throne was surmounted by golden helmets 
with lofty plumes of ostrich feathers, and underneath stood 
the state chair. Crimson and gold stools were placed round 
the room. It contained pictures of the King, Queen, Prince 
Eegent, and Duke of York. We have not space to give a 
description of the other different apartments on this floor, 
all of which were of the most magnificent kind. The ball 
room floors were chalked in beautiful arabesque devices. In 
the centre of the largest were the initials G. Ill R. It was 
divided for two sets of dancers by a crimson silk cord 5 but 
owing to the great number of persons and the excessive 
heat of the weather, no dancing took place in this room, nor 
were the dancers numerous in the ball room. The first 
dance was led off' by the Earl of Percy and Lady F. Monta- 
gue. Supper was announced at two, when the company 
descended by the great staircase to the apartments below, 
and the temporary buildings on the lawn. The room at the 
bottom of the staircase represented a bower with a grotto, 
lined with a profusion of shrubs and flowers. The grand 
table extended the whole length of the conservatory, and 
across Carlton House to the length of two hundred feet. 
Along the centre of the table, about six inches above the 
surface, a canal of pure water continued flowing from a sil- 
ver fountain beautifully constructed at the head of the table. 
Its banks were covered with green moss and aquatic flowers 5 
gold and silver fish swam and sported through the bubbling 
current, which produced a pleasing murmur where it fell, 
and formed a cascade at the outlet. At the head of the 
table, above the fountain, sat the Prince Regent, on a plain 



430 THE PRIVATE LIFE OP A KING. 

mahogany chair with a leather back. The most particular 
friends of the Prince were arranged on each side. They 
were attended by sixty serviteurs ; seven waited on the 
Prince, besides six of the King's and six of the Queen's foot- 
men, in their state liveries, with one man in a complete suit 
of ancient armor. At the back of the Prince's seat appeared 
aureola tables covered with crimson drapery, constructed to 
exhibit, with the greatest effect, a profusion of the most 
exquisitely wrought silver gilt plate, consisting of fountains, 
tripods, epergnes, dishes, and other ornaments. Above the 
whole of this superb display appeared a royal crown, and 
His Majesty's cypher, G.E., splendidly illumined. Behind 
the Prince's chair was most skilfully disposed a sideboard, 
covered with gold vases, urns, massy salvers, etc.; the 
whole surmounted by a Spanish urn, taken from on board 
the " Invincible Armada." Adjoining this were other 
tables, running through the library and whole lower suite 
of rooms ; the candelabras in which were so arranged that 
the Eegent could distinctly see and be seen from one end to 
the other. The Eegent's table accommodated one hundred 
and twenty -two, including the royal dukes, the Bourbons, 
and principal nobility. On the right hand of the Eegent 
was the Duchess of Angouleme ; on the left the Duchess of 
York, the Princess Sophia of Gloucester, etc. From the 
library and room beyond branched out two great lines of 
tables under canvas, far into the gardens, each in the shape 
of a cross, all richly served with silver plate, and covered 
with the delicacies of the season. 

"When the whole company was seated there was a line of 
female beauty more richly adorned, and a blaze of jewelry 
more brilliant, than England ever probably displayed before. 
Pour handsome marquees were pitched on the lawn of 
Carlton House, with chevaux defrise to prevent all intrusion; 
bands of music were stationed in the tents 5 and when danc- 
ing commenced, the gay throng stepped over floors chalked 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 431 

with mosaic devices, and moved through thickets of roses, 
geraniums, and other fragrant sweets, illumined by varie- 
gated lights that gleamed like stars through the foliage. 
The upper servants wore a costume of dark blue, trimmed 
with broad gold lace ; the others wore state liveries. The 
assistants out of livery were dressed uniformly in black 
suits with white vests. The company did not separate till 
six in the morning. The company comprised all the mem- 
bers of the Administration, the foreign ambassadors, the 
principal nobility and gentry in town, the most distin- 
guished military and naval officers, the lord and lady 
mayoress, and the principal aldermen and magistrates. The 
gentlemen wore Court dresses and military and naval uni- 
forms ; the ladies wore all new dresses of English manufac- 
ture, principally white satins, silks, lace, crape, and mus- 
lins, ornamented with silver; head dress, ostrich feathers, 
and diamonds. For the gratification of the public at large, 
the magnificent preparations for the fete were permitted by 
the Prince Eegent to remain ; and many thousands of the 
middling classes, whose money paid for these splendors, 
were allowed to gaze upon them. By the death of Gen- 
eral Fox, the office of Paymaster of the Widows' Pensions 
became vacant. Scarcely was the General cold before the 
Prince Eegent gave the place to Colonel M'Mahon, the 
recital of whose military exploits could be recorded in a 
single page, and whose extent of actual service consisted in 
the putting on and taking off his uniform. It had generally 
been bestowed upon some veteran officer as a reward for 
his services ; but the time was now arrived when it was 
given to an individual whose chief merit lay in being pur- 
veyor general of female beauty to the royal harem, and 
professor of sycophancy at the Court of His Eoyal Highness 
the Prince Eegent of England. 

When this appointment came before the House of Com- 
mons, when Lord Palmerston moved for sundry sums to 



432 THE PRTVA3.B VXFhi ^if A KING. 

defray the contingent expenses of the army, the Prince 
Regent was censured for his favoritism. On Lord Pahner- 
ston moving that the sum of £81,000 be granted for the 
payment of widows' pensions, Mr. Bankes moved an 
amendment — that the £2,000 to Colonel M'Mahon should 
be omitted, but it was lost by the trifling majority of 15. 
When, however, the report was brought up, Mr. Bankes 
renewed his amendment, and carried it in the teeth of the 
Administration by a majority of eight. 

Colonel M'Mahon, being at that time a member of the 
House, entered into an explanation of his conduct, and de- 
clared that in the rewards he had received from his royal 
master he u had met with such numerous marks of grace 
and delicacy, as to impress in the deepest maimer his whole 
heart, and life, and soul with the kindness and favor of His 
Royal Highness." 

A reward carries with it the implication of some service 
rendered, or of some meritorious action committed, and 
when Colonel M'Mahon talked of rewards which he had 
received, there were some crabbed, ill natured members in 
the House who had the impertinence to pry into the nature 
of the peculiar services which Colonel M'Mahon had ren- 
dered to his royal master, and they being found to consist 
in providing fresh objects for the gratification of his pas- 
sions, in which character, fame and reputation were con- 
sidered as merely secondary objects, the voice of the public 
opinion was turned against him, and at the same time one 
of the severest lessons on record was read to the Prince 
Regent by the representatives of the people. 

A humorous circumstance occurred during the explana- 
tory speech of Colonel M'Mahon, in which he stated that 
he had the affairs of sixteen hundred widows to attend to, on 
which Mr. Whitbread rose, and archly declared that, " if 
the gallant Colonel would produce a voucher from the 
ladies that he had performed his duty to their entire 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 433 

satisfaction, he should think him well entitled to the salary 
annexed to his situation." 

This unexpected decision of the House of Commons threw 
the expectants of Carlton House into a feverish state of 
alarm. The affair of Colonel M'Mahon had been put forth 
as a kind of feeler, and if it had succeeded there were other 
situations ready to be proposed, as a remuneration to other 
individuals for services similar to those which M'Mahon 
had rendered to his royal master, and for which they were 
to be rewarded from the public purse. 

To the great surprise, however, of the public, a very 
short time after the gallant Colonel had been shorn of his 
£2,000 a year, by a majority of the House of Commons, an 
appointment appeared in the " Gazette n . for the same 
gentleman, as private secretary to the Prince Regent, with 
a certain salary attached to it, but of the exact amount of 
that salary no decisive information could be obtained, al- 
though it was reported to be the same as the intended sal- 
ary of the Paymaster of the Widows' Pensions, namely, 
£2,000 per annum. A confidential appointment of the kind 
under a Government like that of England is always viewed 
with great jealousy and distrust. It enables the individual 
holding it to become possessed of all state secrets. It ren- 
ders the responsibility of ministers in a great degree a 
nullity, and so endangers the political relations of the 
country, that the most consummate diplomatic ability 
might be frustrated in its designs by the mere intrigues of 
an unauthorized and unconstitutional dependent. 

This appointment was a severe blow to the popularity of 
the Prince, as it was regarded by the people as unconstitu- 
tional. 

In extenuation of many acts of the Prince, it may be 
said that even a man more gifted than himself must have 
had his reason and judgment in a measure blinded by the 
sycophantic adulation which was coatinually offered him 



434 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

by his favorites. How these parasites thrived upon his 
bounty has been seen in various portions of our history. 
For their flattery he had stomach for it all, and Ms appe- 
tite grew by what it fed upon 5 it was not in the least 
perceived by the royal cormorant that adulation is always 
attended by a companion from whom it is necessarily 
inseparable 5 this companion is duplicity, without which 
adulators could not carry on their approaches, nor circum- 
vent those whom they mean to make the dupes of their 
purposes. The Prince, from his infancy, as far as flattery 
goes, was, in the true signification of the French phrase, un 
enfant gate ; but it should have been considered, by those 
who were in the habit of administering such a dangerous 
aliment to the royal mind, that there are no princes to 
whom flattery is so pernicious as to those who are born to 
wear the crown. 

To flatter a King of England is not only to deceive but 
to injure him. It exposes him to the indignation and even to 
the insults of the meanest of his subjects. These, indeed, 
from their obscurity, and the absence of all hope or fear from 
him, will be the readiest to vent their discontent, without 
restraint. But let not a prince be mistaken, and despise 
their clamors ; they are the faifhful interpreters of what 
their betters do not choose to express in unqualified terms; 
but where is the monarch that takes warning from such 
notice, however coarsely given ? It was by undervaluing 
such timely admonitions that Charles I lost his head, and 
James II his crown. 

The bent of the mind of the Prince on his accession to 
the Regency, unschooled by the past and reckless of the 
future, boded little good for the general interests of the 
country ; he still indulged in all his former propensities for 
illicit pleasures and expensive frivolities. The cut of a 
coat became of greater consequence than the amelioration 
of the condition of Ireland ; and the tie of a neckcloth an 

19* 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 435 

object of greater importance than parliamentary reform, or 
the adjustment of the threatening disputes with America. 
The morning hours, which a patriot prince would have 
employed in devising measures for the good of the country, 
were idled away with a favorite tailor taking measures of 
the royal person, and receiving his valuable information 
on the decided superiority of loose trousers to tight 
pantaloons. 

We can state it as a fact that a council was held once in 
Carlton Palace on the subject of trousers and pantaloons, 
at which a certain marchioness presided, assisted by other 
ladies, whose experience in matters of that sort was never 
questioned by anyone. The knotty point to be determined 
(and it was agreed upon una voce,) that there was an 
indelicacy attached to the pantaloon from which the 
trouser was in a great degree exempt. The decision of 
the ladies in favor of the trouser was submitted to the 
approbation of the Prince Regent, who, from a knowledge 
of the anatomical perfection of his form, requested the 
ladies to reverse their decision; but, contra, the ladies 
declared it had been formed after the most mature delib- 
eration, and the closest inspection of the respective advan- 
tages and defects of the two modes of dress ; the Prince, 
therefore, yielded, and from that moment the use of the 
pantaloon was prohibited at Carlton Palace, and, conse- 
quently, wherever fashion was supposed to predominate. 
Fashion has produced strange monsters in its time; and, 
perhaps, no place can be mentioned from which a greater 
number have issued than Carlton Palace. Lord Spencer 
showed his knowledge of the frivolity of the human charac- 
ter when he cut off the skirts of his coat, and declared that 
there was nothing too ridiculous which would not be fol- 
lowed by the crowd, if any celebrated individual set the 
example . 



436 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 



V 



ffitajrtw atorritae. 



The ascendancy which has been acquired by female 
intrigue, aided by beauty and accomplishments, in the 
national councils of all countries, is too well known to 
be questioned ; could the secret wire pulling which has 
preceded important bills brought before our legislators at 
Washington be traced, it would be found, in many instances, 
that the wiles of female loveliness had been brought into 
requisition in favor or in opposition to measures affecting 
the most vital interests of our land. That which Napo- 
leon could not effect with Alexander of Russia, from the 
combined talent of the most skilful diplomats of his time, 
was achieved in every point and particular by the fascina- 
tion of a beautiful opera dancer, sent expressly from Paris 
for the occasion, and who obtained possession of the 
secrets of the Eussian Cabinet, which led afterwards to the 
subjugation of Europe, and to the establishment of a Oor- 
sican adventurer on the throne of an empire whose limits 
exceeded those of Eome in the zenith of its power and 
grandeur. 

Perhaps no prince nor monarch was ever more under the 
control of women than George IV, and that no injury did 
or could accrue to the country from such an ascendancy 
can only be promulgated by those who look on the surface 
of things, and who regulate their opinions, not from 
any previously acquired knowledge of the human charac- 
ter, but from a fictitious estimate which they have formed 
for themselves of what man ought to be. Persons of this 
description feel disposed to reject the belief of that which 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 437 

is not usual, and to doubt what they do not feel themselves 
as the criterion of the human capacity for particular kinds 
of pleasure j and, in regard to the Prince, such people would 
be inclined to consider it incredible that, although at the 
period when his wife was living at Montague House, repu- 
diated, it is true, from his bed and board, Lady Jersey 
was an in-pensioner of Carlton House, Mrs. Fitzherbert an 
out-pensioner, Mrs. Hope, Mrs. Cholmondeley and Mrs. 
Hamilton oooasional visitors ; yet, that notwithstanding he 
was surrounded by this halo of feminine beauty, a certain 
establishment was kept up in May Fair which had the 
resemblance of a Turkish mart for Circassian beauties, 
where noble and ignoble objects were daily presented to 
the gaze of the royal voluptuary, and honored and nattered 
was the infatuated girl when royalty condescended to be- 
stow its smile upon her. Neither the names nor the dates 
of those individuals on whom the beams of royalty de- 
scended, nos the duration of their favoritism, admit of 
chronological proof, nor of general acquaintance, but a 
sufficient number of well known persons, who have pub- 
lished their own shame and infamy, or who have been 
mixed up with some flagrant act of the Court, and memoirs 
of others published by their friends since their death, verify 
the tale of the dissolute and debauched habits of the 
Prince.* If the names of more persons be not known, it 
is owing to the secrecy with which such connections are 
contracted and conducted, rather than a proof of their non- 
existence. Messalina is no more a fable of antiquity than 
Catharine of Russia is in modern times ; the prototype of 
the former was by no means an apparition at the Court of 
Carlton Palace ; the reality was visible to everyone who 
breathed its corrupted atmosphere ; and, in regard to the 
latter meretricious potentate, the Carlton House conspira- 
tors were at this time clandestinely at work to prove to the 

* Vide G-reville's Memoirs. London, 1874. 



438 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

English people that her prototype was to be found in the 
wife of the Prince Regent of England. 

The immortal Alfred was a patriot King, and Henry IV 
of France, if he could have been persuaded that any man 
in his realm had an exclusive right to the possession of a 
handsome woman, might have nearly approached to that 
character ; the Prince of Wales appears to be subject to the 
same drawback on his patriotism as the French monarch, 
for two greater monopolists of female beauty are not to be 
met with in the records of history, with the exception, per- 
haps, of King Solomon. It is true that the Prince had no 
avowed establishment like Louis XV of France for training 
children for prostitution ; but were there no private semi- 
naries " under covert and convenient seeming" for the gratifica- 
tion of his passions ? Were there no boarding schools in 
the vicinity of Hammersmith and Somers Town, explored by 
pretended dancing and music masters, for some precocious 
objects ripening before their time, to be led away by the" 
splendor and show of rank and riches to inhale the polluted 
air of a royal brothel — were the heart-rending scenes, so 
beautifully described in the exquisite novel of "Peggy and 
Patty," never realized by the satraps of Oarlton Palace ? 
Would, for the sake of humanity, for the sake of the char- 
acter of our nature, that these questions could be answered 
in the negative. But, alas ! we could point to the spots, we 
could point to the objects themselves, the sorrows of whom 
are long since hushed in the grave; we could point to one 
spot, in particular, where once flourished two lovely rose- 
buds, bursting in all their glowing beauty on the parent 
branch, so guarded and protected that scarcely a breath of 
heaven was allowed to pass over them ; but the fated mo- 
ment came, scarcely was the fulness of the rose put forth, 
than some treacherous reptile crept into the chalice, the 
flowerets withered, drooped, and died. A parent's broken 
heart cries aloud for vengeance ; the sinner is gone to ren- 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 439 

der up his account, and the tears which suffering humanity 
has shed will be his accusers at a bar where the plea of 
terrestrial rank will be of no avail.* 

The royal purveyor in female beauty to His Eoyal High- 
ness the Prince of Wales, John M'Mahon, on one of his 
visits to Bath— to which place he sometimes retired to 
recreate himself from the toils of his profession, and to dis- 
lodge an enemy to his repose, known by the name of the 
gout, or something worse — the coach in which he was 
a passenger received an addition to its freight, on leaving 
Marlborough, in the persons of a respectable looking, ven- 
erable gentleman and two young ladies, whose destination 
was the same town to which the wily courtier was repairing. 
The tact of the man of the world was soon exhibited by 
M'Mahon, whose eyes were feasting on the youthful beauty 
so unexpectedly presented to his view, and he soon elicited 
from his new companion that he was a minister of the 
Church of England, living upon the small pittance of a 
curacy in the vicinity of Marlborough, and that the two 
ladies were his daughters, whom he was accompanying to 
Bath on a visit to a distant relative. From that moment 
the ruin of these lovely girls was determined upon 5 and, 
although M'Mahon in person was not of that cast nor make 
which possesses a great influence over the female heart, yet 
there was so much of the politeness, the easy familiarity, 
and the urbanity of the finished gentleman about him, that 
the clergyman and his daughters were delighted with their 
new acquaintance, and, on their arrival at the place of des- 
tination, the mutual offer of a further intimacy passed 
between them, and was readily accepted on the part of the 
panderer to royalty. 

We have been allowed to take a transcript of the follow- 
ing letter, which was written by John M'Mahon to his royal 
master a few days after his arrival at Bath: 

* Huish. 



440 the private life of a king. 

u [Host private ~\ 

Bath, Sunday evening. 
Sir: Ever alive to the obtaining possession of any object which may 
contribute to your royal pleasures, I hasten to inform your Royal Highness 
that chance has thrown me into the company of two most lovely girls, the 
daughters of an indigent curate, and who, from their apparent simplicity and 
ignorance of the world, may be soon brought to comply with the wishes of 
your Royal Highness. I shall immediately devise some plan by which they 
may be induced to visit the metropolis, and the remainder of my task will 
then not be difficult of execution. The prize is too valuable to be lost sight 
of. The elder of the girls bears some resemblance in her form and make to 
Hillisberg, although it is evident that the whole fulness of her growth has 
not yet developed itself. The other is more of a languishing beauty ; but 
from the knowledge which I possess of your royal taste the elder will be the 

object of your choice. 

I have the honor to remain, etc., etc., 

John M'Mahon. 
To His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, etc., etc." 

Although the heart sickens at such a cold-blooded, sys- 
tematic destruction of female innocence and of a parent's 
hopes, yet it forms too prominent a feature in the picture 
which we are drawing to be omitted, without subjecting 
ourselves to the charge of falsifying the original, or of a 
want of skill in catching its predominant traits. It ex- 
hibits, indeed, a melancholy shade in our portrait, but the 
display of its dark and gloomy features may not be with- 
out its uses. The vices of its princes form an imposing 
and instructive page in the history of a nation ; they dis- 
play to a people the falsity and in aptness of the political 
principle of hereditary power, and that the toleration of a 
vicious monarch on the throne is in direct opposition to the 
vital interests and prosperity of a country. 

The intimacy between John M'Mahon and the clergy- 
man's family daily increased. Youth is too prone to be 
dazzled by a display of rank, and the knowledge that they 
were honored with the acquaintance and the personal 
esteem of the friend and confidant of the Prince Regent 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 441 

cooperated not a little to instil in the minds of the artless 
girls an increased opinion of their own importance, and a 
growing dislike to the secluded mode of life to which they 
had been hitherto confined. This was the first step to their 
fall. The poison of adulation was hourly instilled into their 
too susceptible hearts • the world of fashion, of gaiety and 
pleasure, had opened upon them, and (must it be owned ?) 
there was a voice within which began to tell them that to 
love and be loved is the bliss of human life. 

John M-Mahon was well versed in the principle that the 
first step to gain a daughter's confidence and affection is 
to befriend her father. Gratitude then takes root in the 
daughter's breast, and the fallacious opinion is formed 
that he who has shown himself a real friend to her parent 
cannot be an enemy to herself. The proffers of John 
M'Mahon to further the promotion of their father, through 
his influence with the Prince Regent, were received by the 
lovely girls with all the warmth of the most unsuspecting 
innocence. They hailed the day which threw them into his 
society as the most fortunate of their lives • and the enthusi- 
asm of youth — brightest sometimes when it should be the 
most softened — beheld on every side a vista of happiness 
opening before it. The entranced imagination of an ardent 
spirit, bounding over all the ills and accidents of life, was 
to be read in the sparkling eye, in the rosy cheek, and in 
the hurried motion of the glowing bosom, redolent with 
nature's purest, sweetest feelings. 

To the great grief of the clergyman and his lovely 
daughters, their kind and estimable friend was called to 
town, at the command of his royal master,* but some con- 
solation was derived from the promise that he made on his 
departure that he would seize the first opportunity of lay- 
ing the worthy minister's case before the Prince Eegent, 
whose goodness of heart, whose universal philanthropy, 
and whose ardent zeal to promote the interest of the good 



442 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

and virtuous were too universally known and practised to 
require any eulogium on his part. 

A few weeks had scarcely elapsed from the departure of 
M'Mahon, when, to the inexpressible joy of the worthy 
clergyman, a letter was received from him announcing that 
a vicarage had just fallen vacant in the immediate vicinity 
of the metropolis, which, being in the gift of the crown, he 
had obtained the presentation to it, and he anticipated the 
pleasure which he should enjoy in beholding his esteemed 
friends in their new residence. 

With what feelings of delight and boundless gratitude 
did these hapless victims to perfidy and lust receive this 
communication ! M'Mahon was, at this moment, in their 
eyes little short of a denii-god; the hour was called a 
blessed one which threw him into their society ; the un- 
suspecting and credulous father saw before him, for the 
remainder of his life, content, competency, and independ- 
ence ; the infatuated females saw a world of pleasure open- 
ing to their view ; the dull monotony of a country life was 
now complained of as inconsistent with the natural gaiety 
of youth j and although a tear did fall at bidding farewell 
to the hallowed scenes of their infantine years, to all the 
mementoes of their joyous sports, and to the living memo- 
rials of those never to be forgotten hours, which shine as 
brilliant stars in the dark canopy of human life, and the 
beams of which light us even on the brink of the grave, yet 
the emotion was transient; the long, last, lingering look 
hung for a moment on the blissful home of their youth— 
the tops of the trees which overshadowed it were still pres- 
ent to their view — the spire of the house of God peering 
between them, in which, responsive to his holy calling, the 
Venerable pastor had preached the Christian doctrine of 
peace on earth and goodwill towards men ; and in the quiet 
cemetery of which lay the mouldering bones of their sainted 
mother — one look more — another — it was the last on this 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 443 

earth. u Farewell," said the pastor, who threw himself 
into the corner of the carriage and wept. 

And could there be such fiends on earth bearing the 
human shape, who could with such satanic guilt so inhu- 
manly destroy a happiness like this ? Could the blessing 
of a refreshing sleep rest on the eyelids of that man, who, 
in the midnight hour, when the distraction of the diurnal 
scenes has ceased, and reflection with its scorpion stings 
forces itself upon the mind — hears again the agonizing 
shriek of his conquered victim, feels, in fancy, again, the 
last expiring struggle, and sees the wild, distracted look, 
piercing into vacancy for some spirit of consolation. That 
man may carry to the world the appearance of content- 
ment and happiness arising from an acquitting conscience, 
but in his own heart he has made for himself a hell ; a con- 
suming fire burns within him, to which no mortal power 
can offer a cooling drop j his death bed is a rack, for he 
dare not pray — the spirits of his victims are hovering 
around him $ terror at what is coining shines in his glazed 
eye — in convulsive horror, shuddering, he dies. 

Among the celebrated females who formed at this 
time the galaxy of beauty encircling the royal Court (for 
purity of character was by no means a sine qua non of ad- 
mission into the Ottomanic Court of the Prince Eegent, 
whatever it might have been into that of his mother) shone 
preeminently Mrs. Duff. Her title to that name had not 
been bestowed upon her by any ordinance of the Church,, 
but from her having been at an early age taken under the 
protection of a celebrated libertine of that name, who very 
condescendingly and becomingly transferred her into the 
arms of the Prince, who, considering that consistency of 
conduct is a very valuable and laudable trait in the char- 
acter of a man, and particularly of a Prince, adhered to his 
usual habits in matters of this kind, and consigned the 
yielding beauty to the possession of a young sprig of 



AAA THE PEIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

nobility just then bursting with all his eccentricities upon 
the fashionable world, and who in his career of dissipation 
and gambling has been the instrument of the ruin of a 
greater number of thoughtless and improvident young 
men than any other individual in the whole volume of the 
peerage. 

To follow this woman in her career of infamy would be 
to stain our pages with a display of vice scarcely credible 
but to those who have mingled in the scenes, and who have 
witnessed the extraordinary exertions which some people 
take in this world to render themselves notorious, if not by 
virtue, at least by a systematic adherence to a course of 
vice, which, although tolerated by fashion and the de- 
praved spirit of the times, still works like a gangrene on 
the moral body of society, to the total destruction of private 
and public happiness. We have seen this fashionable 
demirep from Fop's alley occupying her box on the third 
tier, surrounded by the libertines of the age, young and 
old, and particularly by a reverend knight, the incumbent 
of a valuable living seven miles west of London, and one 
of the worthy and upright chaplains of Carlton House, and 
who, being anxious to fill two characters at the same time, 
took upon himself those of a chaplain-in-ordinary and an 
ordinary chajDlain — the only office of the former being to 
appear regularly at the ordinary which was then provided 
daily at Carlton House for the gratification of the appetite 
of the official dignitaries of the Church, amounting in number 
to about two hundred and fifty, and the effect of whose ex- 
ample and the efficacy of whose jjrecepts were clearly dis- 
tinguishable in the morals and habits of those inmates of 
the Palace who had the good fortune to be under their 
pastoral and their most holy care. 

At the time when the seduction of the clergyman's daugh- 
ters was resolved upon, we find this woman living in Glou- 
cester place, New road, under the name of Mrs. General 
20 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 445 

Hamilton. She was considered in the neighborhood as a 
lady who had moved in the very highest circles, but the 
deatii of whose husband had obliged her to retrench her ex- 
penditure, and to contract the circle of her acquaintance ; 
still, at the same time, there were those busy-bodies, those 
pests of every neighborhood, who bruited it abroad that 
certain transactions were carried on in her house which had 
no relationship to either morality or virtue. Of female 
acquaintance she appeared to be almost wholly bereft 5 but, 
on the other hand, her intimacy with the other sex was of 
the most enlarged description. But then it was said by her 
advocates (for a beautiful woman will always meet with a 
considerable number, except amongst the immediately ugly) 
that the widow of a general officer must, from the very 
nature of the profession of her husband, have contracted an 
intimacy with many of his brethren in arms ; and what 
could be more natural than that, from a respect to the 
deceased, they should continue their attentions to his dis- 
consolate widow. A real man of the world could not, how- 
ever, have remained long in error in regard to the character 
of this woman. With the knowledge which every woman 
of this kind possesses that she is discarded by the world, all 
her endeavors tend to show that she, in return, contemns 
the world. The barriers of virtue being broken down, and 
no possibility existing of her ever being again received with- 
in the pale of it, she acts from the immediate impulse of her 
passions, without reflecting for a moment as to the conse- 
quences which may result to herself or to others. The world 
at war with her, she is at war with the world. She laughs 
at the factitious institutions with which a bastard kind of 
morality has clogged the operations of society $ she sneers 
at the virtue of the prude, and rejoices in the true spirit of 
revenge, if, by her arts, she can reduce another female 
to the same condition as herself. With the knowl- 
edge that the world holds her bad, she has no encour- 



446 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

agement to induce that world to alter its opinion ; and if 
the heart of such a woman be naturally prone to vice (for 
we hold not every fallen woman a vicious one), the mischief 
which she can commit in the destruction of individual hap- 
piness can only be compared to the operations of the mole, 
whose ravages are not immediately seen, but, on a sudden, 
they break forth, and no after remedy can repair the dam- 
age which has been done. 

We have been obliged thus to enter at large into the 
character of this woman, as she was a principal actress in 
the deep tragedy which we are now reciting. She was one 
of those creatures — the disgrace of her sex — who, for the 
sake of private emolument, will take upon themselves the 
scandalous office of being the first to sap the foundation of 
female virtue, and, by a cool and deliberate system of vil- 
lanous stratagem, by machinations and snares beyond the 
inexperience of youth to compete with, to sacrifice her 
blooming victim on the unhallowed altar of a prince's lust. 

It was said by the Duke of Queensbury that there never 
was a female, married or single, whichever attracted his 
fancy, whom this woman did not ultimately succeed in ob- 
taining for him ; and the same character may, with the 
greatest truth, be given of her by the Prince. A systematic 
seducer knows well that an artful, intriguing woman will 
do more in one day towards effecting the ruin of female in- 
nocence than he would himself be able to effect in a month. 
The virtuous and innocent girl feels an alarm at the first 
bold advances of the seducer ; her innate sense of modesty 
rises in opposition to them ; the spirit of virtue, still con- 
scious of its strength, interposes its all-powerful shield ; and 
if a deep affection — that potent and irresistible auxiliary- 
interferes not with its influence, the brilliance of the gem 
may be retained and its purity unsullied by any art or 
force that can be brought against it. 

Differently, however, is it constituted when the aid of a 



• THE PKIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 447 

professional female seducer is called in to bring the first 
stain upon the purity of the gem, and slowly and gradually 
to efface it altogether. The danger is not suspected which 
lies in the artful expression — in the ambiguous insinuation ; 
in the apparent endeavor not to give a shock to an innate 
sense of modesty and virtue. The first blush is the first 
indication of a wound which that modesty has received ; it 
is a silent confession that a feeling has been excited of 
which the artful and vigilant intriguante has only to take the 
proper advantage, and the half and most difficult part of 
her task is accomplished. 

To John M'Mahon and other such purveyors to the royal 
pleasures a woman of this description was invaluable 5 
and, in all cases of extreme difficulty, she was resorted to 
as the sheet anchor on which they could rely for the consum- 
mation of their wishes. That the seduction of one or both 
of the clergyman's daughters would be a matter of diffi- 
culty was at once apparent to the wily courtier. The vigi- 
lance of a parent was to be lulled; scruples were to be 
overcome, which fastidiousness or an ignorance of the 
manners of high life might throw in the way. A rusti- 
cated beauty, who has breathed no other air than that of 
her paternal fields, brought on a sudden to the din and 
splendor of the metropolis, is like a transplanted flower ; it 
is sometimes long before she can assimilate herself to her 
new condition ; she feels herself in a world of strangers, 
and is apt to form an opinion of their respective characters 
according to the dictates of their own unsophisticated 
mind. Simple, candid and sincere herself, she is not able 
to discriminate between truth and flattery 3 and, mistaking 
the one for the other, the weakness of the female character 
is basely taken advantage of to effect the destruction of 
the only remaining principles of virtue and innocence. 

In the essentials which go to form the human character 
the two girls differed widely from each other ; nor did this 



448 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING/ 

difference escape the experienced eye of M'Mahon. The 
elder was all fire, all energy ; there was a vivacity of 
spirit about her which seemed to fit her for an intercourse 
with the great world, at the same time that it enhanced the 
difficulty in the accomplishment of her ruin. There ap- 
peared also v a firmness and decision in her character which 
led M'Mahon to draw the inference that, if she had once 
formed a resolution, she could not be brought easily to de- 
viate from it. And how was a character of this descrip- 
tion to be won? and, if won, how was it to be retained 1 ? 
Was passion or affection to be excited ? Both, it is true, 
lead to the same result ; but the former, although it may 
be the shorter road, is not always the most certain in its 
effects. The latter is the effect of time j but, being once 
established, the conquest soon follows. 

Her general demeanor seemed to announce that she was 
conscious herself that she could command the love of her 
admirers, without any studied art or professed inclination 
to acquire it. The gossips of her native village had lauded 
her beauty ; her mirror had not belied their praises. A 
novel, which now and then was obtained by stealth from a 
circulating library at Marlborough, had inflamed her natu- 
rally romantic mind with the extravagant idea of theirresti- 
bility of female beauty: and perceiving that the louts and 
clodpoles by whom she had hitherto been surrounded had 
no pretensions whatever to become the heroes of her " love's 
tale," she longed for her transition to another sphere, where 
the fulness of her personal charms would make their pro- 
per impression, and the glowing visions of her secret 
thoughts assume the form of reality. 

That this was a frame and temper of mind dangerous in 
the extreme to its possessor must be self-evident ; that it 
was a weakness, which a woman of the penetration of Mrs. 
Hamilton would know how to turn to tbe advantage of her 
employers, is too unfortunately verified by the sequel. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 449 

The younger of these lovely girls was to her sister what 
the moon is to the sun. There was a soft and mellow 
chasteness beaming from her eye, which told of a vestal 
flame that glowed within, pure as the beam when it leaves 
the source of light, and falling on the human heart with all 
its heavenly influence — 

"Fitted to shine in Courts, 
"With an affected grace, or walk the plain, 
With innocence and meditation ioin'd 
In soft assemblage," 

she grew up under the eye of an affectionate and indulgent 
parent, his dearest, proudest hope. Her whole heart ap- 
peared to be vivified with affection ; and, like the ivy, her 
whole study seemed to be to find some kindred object to 
which she could cling, and, having once clasped it, to be so 
identified with its existence that the same power which 
destroyed the one should also destroy the other. 

Such were the characters now destined to fall a sacrifice 
to the profligate and libertine habits of a British prince. 
The obligations which this virtuous family conceived them- 
selves to lie under to John M'Mahon, the kind and dis- 
interested promoter of their future welfare, were further 
increased by the attention which he paid to their comfort 
and convenience immediately on their arrival in the 
metropolis ; he having informed them that he had pro- 
cured them lodgings at the house of a Mrs. Hamilton, 
a widow lady of the highest respectability, and where 
all the comforts of a genteel establishment would be 
afforded them. 

To the house, therefore, of Mrs. Hamilton, the clergy- 
man repaired with his daughters ; and, the day after their 
arrival, they were delighted to receive a visit from their 
kind and generous benefactor. He assured the worthy 
pastor that the necessary arrangements were going on 
for his induction into his new benefice; and that, in the 



450 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

interim, his time, and that of his daughters, might be 
agreeably employed in visiting the different places of 
amusement in the metropolis, to which, under the aus- 
pices of Mrs. Hamilton, it would confer the highest degree 
of pleasure upon him to be their conductor and companion. 

The hearts of the two girls, now on the eve of being in- 
troduced to scenes of gaiety and dissipation, bounded with 
all the warmth of youthful expectation. Anticipation of 
new and yet untasted pleasures sparkled in their eyes with 
every opening day ; and the kind and maternal solicitude 
which Mrs. Hamilton evinced, on every occasion in which 
their comfort or health was concerned, would have lulled 
the vigilance and suspicions of the most scrupulous parent. 
The first step was gained — confidence was established— 
and gradually and imperceptibly approached the last tragic 
scene of the eventful drama. 

Among the numerous visitors who attended the evening 
parties of Mrs. Hamilton was one individual whose elegance 
of manners, personal endowments, vivacity of spirit, and 
refined conversation attracted the particular attention of 
the youthful beauties. He was introduced by that best of 
men and kindest of friends, Sir John M'Mahon, as Colonel 
Pox, a gentleman allied to one of the noblest families of the 
kingdom, and possessed of a large independent fortune. 
The circumstance that, in the evenings when Colonel Fox 
graced the domestic circle with his presence no other 
visitor was ever admitted, was not considered by the 
pastor and his daughters as deserving of their particular 
notice. It could not be the effect of design or premedita- 
tion $ for, to all appearances, his visits were merely acci- 
dental — a kind of en passant affair — and the additional 
circumstance that he was generally accompanied by his 
friend M'Mahon set all doubt at rest, on their part, of any 
intended disguise or concealment. 

It may be almost needless to state that this Colonel Fox 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 451 

was the Prince 5 and it must not be supposed that u the 
most accomplished gentleman of Europe " failed in making 
that impression on the hearts of the clergyman's daughters 
which his superior endowments had so often effected on the 
hearts of their fellow women. The great difficulty, how- 
ever, lay in so dividing his attentions that neither of them 
should assume that she was the favored object of his affec- 
tions. If a present were made to the one, another, pro- 
portionably rich and costly, was made to the other. If, on 
one evening, a confidential tete-a-tete took place with the 
elder sister, on the following evening his attentions 
appeared to be studiously directed to the younger. Thus 
both of them were inhaling a poison destructive of their 
internal peace, at the same time they were preparing the 
road for the destruction of their innocence. Mrs. Hamilton, 
by false representations and artful innuendoes, contrived to 
keep up this delusion between her unsuspecting victims, at 
the same time that she extracted from them that secret 
which a woman generally tells the last, and which, when 
told, forms the most interesting and memorable epoch of 
her life. The plans were verging fast to maturity $ the 
presence of the worthy minister operated, however, in 
some degree as a drawback to their final accomplishment. 
His removal was, therefore, necessary, and he was conse- 
quently informed that an unexpected obstacle had arisen 
in the presentation of the benefice which had fallen vacant 5 
but that an advowson of considerable value had devolved 
to the crown in a village of Leicestershire, to which, if he 
pleased, his induction could be instantly confirmed. This 
intelligence was received by the two girls with evident 
marks of grief; it was removing them again to the dull 
and monotonous scenes of a country life, and from an object 
from whom a separation was regarded as the greatest cal- 
amity that could befall them. 
It was, however, proposed to the credulous minister that 



452 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

he should himself take a personal survey of his intended 
benefice previous to the confirmation of the grant, and 
that, in the meantime, his daughters should remain under 
the hospitable roof of Mrs. Hamilton, who, during the 
absence of their parent, would watch over their personal 
interests with all the anxious solicitude of a mother. Joy 
again sparkled in the eyes of the lovely girls, and they saw 
their father depart, little thinking that the affectionate kiss 
which he then gave them was the last which their lips would 
ever receive from him in this world. 

One morning M'Mahon called at an earlier hour than 
usual, on the plea of having some important business to 
transact with Mrs. Hamilton relative to the affairs of her 
late husband, which rendered it advisable that she should 
see her solicitor immediately on the subject. The carriage 
was instantly ordered, and, whilst M'Mahon consented to 
remain as the companion of the younger, Mrs. Hamilton 
set off with the elder of the girls on her pretended visit to 
the attorney. " We will drive first to Taylor's in Bond 
street," said Mrs. Hamilton, " as he has some commissions 
for me to execute f and, accordingly, they were driven to 
that infamous resort of titled demireps and fashionable 
prostitutes. Mrs. Hamilton and her beautiful protegee 
were requested by the obsequious and accommodating shoe- 
maker to walk up into the drawing room, but which Mrs. 
Hamilton soon left again, pretending that she had some 
private business to transact with Taylor. Eeturning in a 
few minutes, she exclaimed, "How truly fortunate we are! 
Colonel Fox has just entered the shop, and, being apprised 
of your being here, he has solicited permission to keep you 
company until I return from my solicitor's; you cannot 
refuse the request," and, without waiting for a reply, she 
left the room. 

The lovely, blushing girl, so taken by surprise, was, in 
fact, scarcely able to reply, wavering between hope and 

20* 



THE PRIVATE LITE OF A KING. 453 

fear — prompted by a sense of shame and modesty to refuse 
— influenced by the commanding* voice of an ardent attach- 
ment, willing to grant it. The beatings of her heart were 
audible as she heard the approaching footsteps of the man 
to whom, in secret, she offered up her virgin vows, and by 
whom to be beloved she should consider as the attainment 
of the dearest of her earthly hopes. Irresistible in the 
power of his personal accomplishments, the trembling vic- 
tim received her destroyer. In the delirium of passion he 
seized her hand— vowed that no other love should ever fill 
his heart — that in the return of his love was centred the 
future happiness of his life — and that, being once gained, 
he envied not the distinctions of rank, nor all the splendor 
of a prince's throne. 

Confusion, embarrassment, a perturbation yet unknown, 
betrayed to the experienced seducer the emotions of her 
virgin heart. As yet, no confession had escaped her lips, 
but there is a language more eloquent than words. It 
spoke in the blush on her cheek — in the tremor of her whole 
frame — in the faint and powerless opposition to the warm 
and glowing kiss which was implanted on her lips. 

In this hour rang the knell of her maiden innocence r, the 
seducer saw the victory was his, but he advanced towards 
it gradually and cautiously. The fated hour at length 
came, and another victim was added to the insatiable pas- 
sion of the royal voluptuary. 

We will here draw the veil over the remaining part of this 
tragic story. The recital of the various stratagems which 
were used to draw the two sisters within the power of the 
seducer would be one continued display of scenes revolting 
to humanity and the common feelings of our nature.* 

From this episode we return to matters of a more pub- 
lic nature, the most prominent of which was the assassi- 
nation of the Prime Minister, Mr. Perceval, who was shot 

* Huish's Memoirs. 



454 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

by an insane person in the Honse of Commons, May 11th, 
1812. 

The reign of George IV has been called a splendid reign 
. — and justly so, if the Pimlico Palace, the restoration of 
Windsor, the nicknacks of the Pavilion, the fleet on Vir- 
ginia Water, the elegant jumble of the royal cottage, and 
soi-disant great public improvements, had either been pro- 
moted or encouraged by the King for the happiness of the 
people. But, although the latter were weighed down by 
taxes which paralyzed their energies, and were oppressed 
with wants which accumulated indifference and despair, 
yet buildings were projected and continued not required 
for his convenience, nor necessary for the support of his 
dignity, and accompanied with an expense which was an 
insult to the distresses of the country, and ultimately ex- 
hausted the patience of the people. 

We cannot refrain from inserting the following ludicrous 
description of this palace. (Extract from a letter addressed 
by a French architect in London to his friend in Paris) : 
f* My dear Sair — I shall now give you some account of de 
royal palace here, called de Buck-and-ham Palace, which 
is building for de English King, in de spirit of John Bull 
plum pudding and roast beef taste, for which de English 
are so famous. It is great curiosity. In de first place, de 
pillars of de palace are made to reprasent English vegita- 
ble, as de sparrowgrass, de leek, and onion j then de entab- 
latures or friezes are vary mouch enriched with leg of mut- 
ton, and de pork, with vat dey call de garnish, all vary 
beautiful carved j then, on de impediment of de front, 
stand colossal figure of de man- cook with de large English 
toasting fork in his hand, ready to put into de pot a vary 
large plum pudding behind him, which is vary fine pudding, 
not de color of black Christmas pudding, because de archi- 
tect say it would not look veil in summair time ; it is vary 
plain pudding. Then de small windows of de kitchen, on 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 455 

each side de impediment at top story of de palace, have 
before dem trophy of de kitchen, such as pot, and de pan, 
and othare thing, which look well at de distance, except 
that de poker and de fcong are too big. On de wing of de 
palace, called de gizzard wing (the othare wing vas cut off,) 
stand de domestique servant, in neat dress, holding in de 
trays biscuit and tart, and othare ding. The name of de 
architect is Mistaire Hash, de King's architect, who, I vas 
informed^ vas roasted vary much (de term I did not compre- 
hend). De English people seem vary much to like dis pal- 
ace for de King, and do laugh vary much. There is to be 
in de front of de palace vary large kitchen range, made of 
white marble, vich I was told would contain von hundred of 
goose at von time. De palace, ven complete, will be called 
after von famous English dish, de Toad-in -de-Hole." 

We now consider ourselves called upon to exhibit the 
counterpart of the proceedings which took place between 
the Prince and his royal brothers, York and Clarence, re- 
specting the raising of a large sum of money on their 
respective bonds, and the particulars of which have been 
confidentially intrusted to us, to enable us to complete the 
picture of some of the most tragical scenes which were ever 
enacted in a civilized country. 

We know that princes are but men, and, like other men, 
are liable to be entranced " by the magic gaze of vice" to 
form imprudent associations, to be the dupe of designing 
men, and hastily to adopt the views of polished parasites. 
We profess ourselves to be liberal in political principle ; we 
will be so in act and deed. We declare our determina- 
tion to make no accusation, but, anxious for the develop- 
ment of truth — although we cannot hope at this remote 
period of producing that fair discussion before which all 
falsehood, maudlin, and disguise must fall — we shall pro- 
ceed to publish that which we doubt not would have been 
highly conducive to the interests and the character of the 



456 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

royal brothers never to have suppressed. The suppression 
of any document goes far to the presumption of the guilt 
of the parties concerned in the implication ; for a conscious- 
ness of innocence rather courts than shuns inquiry, and will 
rather meet its accusers boldly face to face than attempt 
to throw the veil of mystification over its actions.* Where 
43iere is no doubt as to the commission of an act, it becomes 
the indisputable right of the historian to portray that action, 
whether virtuous or atrocious, and to comment upon its 
effects, as far as they regard the interests of the state, or 
the well-being and happiness of society in general. We 
reiterate our declaration that, in the disclosure of the fol- 
lowing facts, we make no personal Recusation $ we could, 
indeed, point to several individuals whom we suspect to be 
deeply implicated in the concoction and accomplishment of 
the diabolical scheme ; and, although their iniquity was 
concealed at the time by the suppression of every paper 
and pamphlet which publicly treated of the subject, yet the 
whole forms so extraordinary a feature in the life of the 
Prince, and possesses withal such a high degree of interest, 
that it would be reproachful and unpardonable in us to 
omit it. 

The afflicting malady of George III was hailed by the 
party of the Prince as the commencement of that fortunate 
era which was to bring him an accession of power, and 
with that power an accession also of riches, sufficient to 
enable him to continue his career of extravagance and prof- 
ligacy. The Duke of York also required an immediate 
supply of money to enable him to support the demands of 
the Tennis Court, where he passed a great part of his time 
in indiscriminate society, even with the very lowest who 
infest a public tennis court, and where he lost immense 
sums of money. The domestic calamity of the father was 
deemed very propitious for raising money on a contingency 

* Suppressed Memoirs. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 457 

supposed not to be very distant ; and the opportunity it 
afforded of pecuniary accommodation was eagerly embraced 
as the means of relieving the Prince from the pressure of 
his embarrassments. A council of finance was assembled 
on the occasion, composed of the Prince's most intimate 
friends, and the dangerous resource of a post obit bond 
was determined on. Here the Prince should have halted j 
he had hitherto been improvident, flagrantly imprudent, 
and the step that follows imprudence presented itself. 
Did the Prince pause, or did he follow the path unchecked? 
The post obit bonds were to have been tried in England, 
under the direction of Mr. Louis Weltjie, Clerk of the 
Prince's Kitchen 5 in Ireland, by Mr. Annesley Shee, for- 
merly a lottery office keeper; and in Scotland, by Mr. 
Dunbar, a money broker in the city. These bonds were to 
be secured by the Prince, the Duke of York, and the Duke 
of Clarence. Mr. Weltjie, fearing the consequences, with- 
drew himself from the concern by introducing to the Prince 
Mr. Henry Jones, of Frith street, Soho, and Mr. John 
Cator, of the Adelphi, both men of property and of exten- 
sive money connections. When first employed by the 
Prince, Mr. Cator engaged to pay down ten thousand 
pounds of a bond treble the amount, payable when a certain 
event should take place. The bargain was perfected on the 
16th of December, 1788, witnessed by Andrew Robinson 
and Charles Bicknell, and on the same day the money was 
paid. 

The form of these bonds may be matter of curiosity to 
many of our readers, and is as follows : 

" Know all men by these presents that we, George, Prince of "Wales, 
Frederick, Duke of York, and "William Henry, Duke of Clarence, all living in 
the City of Westminster, in the county of Middlesex, are jointly and sever- 
ally, justly and truly indebted to John Cator, of Beckenham, in the County of 
Kent, Esquire, and his executors, administrators and assigns, in the penal 
sum of sixty thousand pounds of good and lawful money of Great Britain, 



458 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

well and truly paid to us at or before the sealing of these presents. Sealed 
with our seals this 16th day of December, in the 29th year of the reign of 
our Sovereign Lord George III, by the Grace of God, King, Defender of the 
Faith, Anno Domini It 88. 

The condition of the above written obligation is such that if the above 
bounden George, Prince of "Wales, Frederick, Duke of York, and William 
Henry, Duke of Clarence, or any or either of them, or any other of their 
heirs, executors, or administrators shall well and truly pay or cause to be 
paid unto the above named John Cator, his executors, administrators, or 
assigns, the full sum of thirty thousand pounds of lawful money of Great 
Britain, within the space or time of six calendar months next after any one 
or either of us, the said George, Prince of Wales, Frederick, Duke of York, 
and William Henry, Duke of Clarence, shall come to and ascend the throne 
of England, together with lawful interest on the same, to be computed from 
the day that such event shall happen, up and home to the time of paying off 
this obligation, then, and in such case, the same shall become null and void; 
otherwise to be and remain in full force and virtue. 

George, Prince of Wales, L. S. 
Frederick, L. S. 
William Henry, L. S." 

These post obit bond transactions began, however, in time 
to wear a very serious aspect, when Mr. Jones and Mr. 
Cator withdrew themselves entirely from the business. 
The purchasers of the bonds became alarmed, and were 
afraid of acknowledging they held any such obligations. 
This arose from the treasonable nature of the transactions, 
inasmuch as the death of the sovereign is anticipated, and 
therefore subjects the parties to all the penalties of petty 
treason. Upon this transaction, upon the mode, the induce- 
ments to, and the time of its adoption, it would be an easy 
matter to enlarge in terms of strong and just execration; 
but we forbear, and pass to circumstances of a still deeper 
dye. 

The Princes were now destitute of resources, when Sir 
Thomas Dundas, whose eminent services to his country in a 
short time advanced him to the peerage, discovered a new 
channel. He got introduced to Mr. Hugh Watts, of the Sun 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 459 

Fire office, Mr. Abraham Goldsmidt, and other moneyed per- 
sons. Mr. Goldsmidt, for a reasonable commission, under- 
took to raise money for the Princes in Holland, from his 
correspondents, Messrs. Abraham and Simeon Boas, of the 
Hague, who were bankers of great credit. They consented 
to advance three hundred and fifty thousand guilders, for 
twelve years, and receive the joint bond of the three Princes, 
payable to them, and vesting in them a power of attorney 
to j>artition the security and sell it in shares or debentures 
of one thousand guilders each. 

This bond was sent to Holland by Mr. Goldsmidt, who in 
a short time received the amount in bills payable to his own 
order, which he discounted, and took the money to the 
Prince. The Prince paid Mr. Goldsmidt many compliments 
for his attention, and tendered his services, but said, as the 
Duke of York, who was to receive part of the money, was 
not present, he must beg Mr. Goldsmidfs indulgence for the 
payment of the commission till he had arranged the division 
of the money with the Duke. Mr. Goldsmidt, with great 
good humor, bowed and retired. 

This transaction caused the ruin of the lenders, who sold 
the entire bond in shares of a thousand guilders each, pay- 
able at their own house. To keep up their credit for two 
years they paid the interest themselves ; but, as they 
received no money from the Princes, they were compelled 
to stop payment and became bankrupts. Before the last 
examination under their commission, the French entered 
Holland and seized all their property, and, as a part of it, 
the Princes' bond ; and the two Boas put a period to their exist- 
ence — the one by a pistol, the other by poison.* 

Some time after, Mr. Goldsmidt was again applied to, to 
negotiate another loan on the continent to the utmost extent 
he could borrow ; but Mr. Goldsmidt declined dealing with 
Princes. On the marriage of the Prince, commissioners were 

* Suppressed edition. 



460 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

appointed a second time to manage his affairs, and to them 
shares of this bond were presented for payment, which was 
refused, because the debt was concealed in the schedule pre- 
sented to Parliament, and no provision was made for its 
payment. By this concealment of the full amount of his 
debts the creditors of the Prince were cruelly wronged, the 
faith of the British Parliament was trifled with and imposed 
upon, and the generosity of the British people most scan- 
dalously abused. 

It not being found practicable to raise the money in Eng- 
land, it was at last resolved to try what could be done in 
Holland and France ; and a convenient agent was found in 
a Mr. John James de Beaume, who undertook the business, 
and through whom a sum not less than £200,000 in money 
and jewels, abating the interest and other expenses, was 
raised for the occasion; and on the 3d of June, 1790, the 
three royal brothers, George, Frederick, and William Henry, 
executed a bond in favor of Mr. de Beaume, for £100,000, 
acknowledging themselves u to be justly and truly indebted 
to hnn in the said sum of £100,000 sterling, well and 
truly advanced to them as a loan, to be paid to the said 
John James de Beaume, or his attorney, or his executors, 
heirs, or assigns, or to any one authorized to receive the 
same on their behalf, at the time and in the proportions 
thereinafter mentioned. And, further, that the said parties 
hereto engage and bind themselves, jointly and severally, 
and all and every their respective revenues, goods, effects, 
and property, in whatsoever place they may be situate, and 
of whatsoever nature or kind ; and further covenanting to 
pay the interest at the rate of five per cent, per annum, for 
the term of twenty-five years, to commence the 1st of July, 
1791 ; and the capital sum to be paid as follows: namely, on 
the 1st of June, 1806, and the other in parts every year, up 
to the year 1815. And further reciting that the same parties 
renounce and disclaim all subterfuge, pretext, or reserves, 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 461 

that might be to the contrary, to the intents of the said 
agreement ; and, further, that to facilitate the said J. J. de 
Beauine in raising the said sum for the said parties, they 
give him full power to grant and publish parts or portions 
of the said loau, under his signature, to such person or per- 
sons as may be inclined to take shares in the same, by 
debentures o± £100 each debenture, though in a printed 
form, to be of valid force, provided the same be verified by 
the signature of the said J. J. de Beaume signed thereto, 
and the same to carry equal force and value as the original 
bond for £100,000, the said parties acknowledging to have 
received, at the signing the said obligation, the considera- 
tion therein named." 

It is impossible for the operative parts of a deed to be 
more binding in law, or freer from exceptions, than the 
bond of which we have given an abstract ; and on this 
bond Mr. de Beaume proceeded to act, the same being 
verified by certain notaries, both in London, Paris, and 
Holland, to the several parties concerned therein. 

It is pretended, indeed, that Mr. de Beaume never raised 
the whole of the money, or, if he did, that he never paid it 
over to the Prince's trustee, the late Mr. Thomas Ham- 
mersley j but, supposing this statement to be correct, does 
it change the nature of the security on the bona fide holders 
of any Of the u parts or portions" of the said loan ? It has 
been held that the demand of a clear title and adequate 
consideration, evidently intended to embarrass and defer 
the payment, was known to be clogged with almost 
insuperable difficulties arising out of the Bevolution, and 
the impossibility of tracing out the heirs and assigns of the 
original holders of these bonds, amid the confusion of such 
times as those which shortly succeeded the royal contract. 
Abundant means, however, were to be found in this country 
to establish the validity of these bonds, duplicates of which 
were attested by the notaries, Sutherland and Bonner, and 



462 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KTNGK 

afterwards deposited with Messrs. Haminersley, through 
whose hands the whole transaction passed 5 nor has it been 
proved, or attempted to be so, that De Beaume ever abused 
the powers with which he was intrusted by issuing other 
than the bonds contracted for. If he had done so, the 
fraud would have been easily detected, as these bonds were 
numbered and dated in the order in which they were issued, 
with all the formalities of exchequer or navy bills. When, 
therefore, these bonds became payable, or interest accrued, 
the onus probandi lay with the trustees to vouch for their 
genuineness and falsehood, as they would have been ready 
to do if the originals had been either lost or destroyed. 

It has been said, in order to magnify the breach of faith 
on the part of the three royal swindlers, that several of the 
bond owners were sent out of the country, under the Alien 
Act, to avoid the claim j and that, on their return to France, 
the greater number were massacred or guillotined ; and of 
the latter fact some substantial proofs can be found, espe- 
cially in the case of Monsieur Viette, a rich jeweller, whose 
wealth, however, was more likely to have caused his death 
than the holding of the bonds alluded to, which, neither in 
the amount nor the object, could offend or alarm the French 
Government, jealous and barbarous as it proved itself at 
that period. It was, indeed, asserted very confidently by 
a journalist in 1823, who seems to have been imperfectly 
informed on the subject of these loans, and who involves 
the narrative in much obscurity, for purposes which we are 
not now called on to investigate, that fourteen persons 
were executed in Paris for negotiating, or being concerned 
in circulating, such portions or shares of this loan as bore 
Mr. de Beaume's signature ; but it might be as well insisted 
upon that, because several of the reputed or actual owners 
of these securities were lost, on their passage to France, in 
consequence of the leaky state of the vessel, that such 
vessel had been scuttled by order of the Home Depart- 
21 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 463 

ment, as that the revolutionary Government could appre- 
hend a reaction from the fact of this loan, which did not 
exceed £100,000 sterling. We confine ourselves to this 
subject, having already touched on the various attempts to 
relieve the Prince in 1786 as a complete failure. 

When Mr. Goldsmidt became a party to the loan of the 
Boas', the Prince's agents talked of appropriations, savings, 
etc., to be backed by a parliamentary grant, secured by a 
mortgage of the revenues of the Duchies of Cornwall and 
Lancaster, of which Mr. G-oldsmidt was to be the receiver; 
instead of which, no preparations whatever were made by 
the Prince to meet the first quarter's accruing interest on 
this loan. 

No man could urge the matter with more grace and pro- 
priety on the attention of the Treasurer of the Household 
than Mr. Goldsmidt. But punctuality at Carlton House 
was no part of its economy, the keeping an engagement 
no voluntary duty; for, although the Prince could not be 
said to break the engagement, yet he never troubled him- 
self about the conditions of the agreement when broken ; 
nor, when the consequences were pointed out to him, was 
he at all solicitous of providing against the recurrence of 
them, or supplying a remedy for the future. Notwithstand- 
ing the result of this want of principle being fatal to the 
credit and destructive of the life of both parties, the orgies 
at Carlton House were never suspended for a moment, and 
the claimants under this loan were treated afterwards with 
the same injustice and cruelty as the subscribers to Mr. 
de Beaume's loan. 

A knowledge of the intrigues of a Court like that of the 
Prince can alone authenticate its want of principle ; and, 
although remonstrances dropped in, day after day, in 
private, and the journals obscurely alluded to the facts 
of the alarming embarrassments with which the princes 
were at this time surrounded, no notice was taken of them, 



464 THE PRIVATE LIPE OF A KING. 

nor were any measures devised to avert the consequences 
which threatened to overwhelm them in ruin. The whole 
of the plans at last began to excite the attention of Parlia- 
ment, on account of the manner in which the honor of the 
Government was compromised by a course of proceedings 
that would have convicted any other man of inferior rank 
before the tribunals of the country. And in the case of Mr. 
Goldsrnidt the sympathy of the mercantile world in par- 
ticular was excited, on account of the injuries which one of 
the worthiest men in it was sustaining through the profli- 
gate and unprincipled manners of the Prince's advisers. 

Mr. Goldsmidt's character had for many years been 
rising into public estimation j his credit was unbounded, 
and his conduct as a money broker unexceptionable, and 
esteemed all over Europe. Kather too easy of access, too 
liberal in his advances, and too confiding in the principles 
and probity of others, such a disposition was little calcu- 
lated to resist the importunities of a man of the polished 
manners of the Prince ; and every attempt which flattery 
could embellish, which promises could satisfy, or personal 
civility confirm, was made to evade the crisis then impend- 
ing in Pall Mall, and in which the Prince would have suc- 
ceeded but for the unconquerable probity of the negoti- 
ator. He, however, at length withdrew, alarmed and 
disgusted ; and, without coming to an open rupture with 
his employer, assisted the Boas' far exceeding what might 
be deemed prudent in reference to his extensive foreign 
transactions. But the event preyed upon his mind 5 it 
weakened his influence abroad, and was the first cause of 
those dismal occurrences which led to his death and the 
ruin of his fortunes. 

We may be allowed to speak our humble praise over the 
grave of this benevolent Jew. Never was a man lamented 
by his friends more sincerely. The death of Mr. Gold- 
srnidt was a loss to every man who stood in need of his 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 465 

assistance ; and it is no hyperbole to say that the young 
lost their benefactor, the widow her husband, and innumer- 
able families their friend. The heart of Mr. Goldsmidt was 
like "the gush of fresh springs," fertilizing what was before 
barren, and planting flowers amidst the waste of the hu- 
man affections, to refresh and console the indigent and the 
unfortunate. Proud Christian ! go thou and do likewise. 

On recurring to De Beauine's loan, it is impossible to 
forget the time at which it was raised. Never was there a 
period of greater public excitement— never one when a tem- 
perate and wise policy was less listened to between the 
rulers of France and England. The prejudices which had 
existed for centuries between two rival nations, the new 
position in which France stood with respect to her ancient 
polity, the strength she displayed, and the doctrines she 
maintained in asserting her newly acquired power and 
liberty, and the revolutionary spirit which her example 
excited among surrounding nations, caused all the mon- 
archies of Europe to unite in misrepresenting both her in- 
ternal and external administration. It is, therefore, by no 
means surprising that De Beaume came in for his share of 
the obloquy ; nor, knowing the necessities of the Prince, 
that his creatures should take advantage of the slander 
to repudiate and defraud his agent ; for, at the same time 
that De Beaume was afraid of meeting the storm in France, 
the Prince felt the weight of the censure of his father's 
Government as likely to end in a parliamentary inquiry. 
Indeed, all the parties implicated in the transaction began 
to see the situation in which their time-serving servility 
had placed them ; and they, as well as the Prince, trembled 
at the idea of a public investigation, yet it was found im- 
possible to withdraw from an obligation, which was perfect 
in all its parts, without having recourse to chicanery and 
false pretences. Eather, therefore, than risk the trial, it 
was pretended that De Beaume had deceived the Prince, 



466 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 

that lie was not the man he assumed to be, and had never 
paid over the consideration stipulated for and agreed upon. 

The case of Aslett, the sub-cashier of the Bank of Eng- 
land, must still be fresh in the recollection of many of our 
readers. He may owe his salvation from the scaffold, and 
his subsequent pardon, to his pecuniary negotiations with 
the Prince of Wales, and particularly to the active part 
which he took in assisting Mr. Goldsmidt in raising money 
on the Prince's bond. Nero was once known to pardon 
a man for a crime, but then the tyrant was drunk; the 
Prince of Wales was once known to show his gratitude for 
previous services by pardoning a criminal, but ISTero was 
not less the tyrant, nor was the Prince of Wales less the 
libertine.* 

But suppose the whole consideration had not been re- 
ceived 5 still it is acknowledged that it was in part paid, 
and in such valuables as were most likely to abound in the 
then state of France, and could be most readily conveyed 
and parted with. Is it not, therefore, presumptive evidence, 
at least, that other bonds might have been subscribed for 
money, in a country like France, where persons then, as 
now, hoarded the specie, because it was the only circulating 
medium, or, foreseeing the storm, provided against its ex- 
plosion by an investment on the security of persons of sup- 
posed unimpeachable honor ? By either of these means a 
bona fide debt was created which no ultimate chance could 
repudiate nor invalidate. How could the trustees of the 
Prince say when and to whom these securities were con- 
veyed? how ascertain the uses to which they had been 
converted, supposing it a fraud on the part of De Beau me, 
or impugn and deny the claims of the holders who tendered 
them for payment? The diamonds transmitted by De 
Beaume, through Perregaux, were converted into cash, and 
made use of by the Prince. Did he ever pay for these dia- 
monds I and, if not, how came they in his hands f 

* Huish. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 467 

If this reasoning be conclusive, it follows that the dia- 
monds being vouched for as a remittance, and the proceeds 
acknowledged, was a good and sufficient consideration ac- 
cording to the terms of the bonds, and, therefore, that their 
payment was compulsory on the grantors ; that the means 
taken to frustrate the payment were highly illegal, and the 
parties concerned in doing so guilty, according to the then 
law, of a misdemeanor, by a breach of covenant, by which 
the bona fide holder was cheated out of his property. 

This is rather an argument on the case before stating it ; 
and we now proceed to give what we know to be nearly the 
whole of the facts which characterize this extraordinary pro- 
ceeding, and to which we have alluded in another part of 
these memoirs. 

The plan proposed by Mr. De Beaume to raise a large 
sum of money on the continent for the use of the princes 
was very similar to that which was negotiated by the Boas' 
in Holland, the three princes giving their joint security for 
the fulfilment of the stipulations. Mr. Bicknell was accord- 
ingly directed by the princes to prepare a bond for their 
execution for £100,000, payable to De Beaume, and vesting 
in him power to divide it into one thousand pounds each, 
by printed copies of the bond, which, under the signature 
of De Beaume, with the amount and number certified by a 
notary public, should be as binding on the princes as if ex- 
ecuted by themselves. They made themselves, their heirs, 
executors, goods, and effects, liable to these conditions, just 
as they did in the bond to Messrs. Boas. The original bond 
was deposited, in trust, in the Bank of Bansom, Morland, 
and Hammersley ; while an attested copy was immediately 
delivered to De Beaume, and the bankers' acknowledgment 
of holding such a security was given as De Beaume's au- 
thority and credentials, as the agent of the three Princes, 
who, in this instance, seem to have taken every precaution 
to secure themselves against imposition. 



468 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

The bankers, to facilitate De Beaume's plan, gave him a 
letter of introduction to their correspondent in Paris, M. 
Perregaux. Thus provided, De Beaume went to Paris as 
the agent of the Prince, and established himself there in 
that capacity. The French Revolution then wore a very 
serious aspect, troubles seemed increasing, and many of the 
French wished to leave their country till better times. As 
by remitting bills to England they sustained a very heavy 
loss, the securities of the British princes were eagerly pur- 
chased from De Beaume by those who wished to emigrate, 
because those securities were not only more portable than 
specie, but they were purchased without being subject to 
the fluctuations of the course of exchange, and at the time 
were considered as the best negotiable securities in the 
market. The unfortunate Frenchmen who purchased them 
crossed to England, where they thought themselves perfectly 
safe ; but, as they could not get any money paid on them, 
they were involved in great difficulty, and consequently 
became very urgent and clamorous. 

The Duke of Portland was then Secretary of State for 
the Home Department, and to him came many complaints 
from Carlton House against such of the emigrants as were 
most troublesome and unjust in demanding their money. 
The Duke of Portland, whose head, in many instances, 
partook of the nature of the produce of Portland Island, 
was very attentive to every complaint made on this subject. 
They were sent out of the country, as in the former instance, 
and landed on the continent. Twenty- six foreigners, who 
were creditors of the princes, and who had placed the most 
implicit reliance on the honor and faith of a British prince, 
were sent out of England, though no charge was preferred 
against them. Of these twenty -six unfortunate creditors of 
the princes so sent out of the country fourteen are traced 
to the guillotine, and their deaths are recorded in the bloody 
annals of that instrument. The remaining twelve of the 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 469 

unhappy exiles were creditors under the bond of Messrs. 
Boas ) every effort to trace them anywhere has been in 
vain. No hint at their fate shall be given ; the annals of 
these times are sufficiently black with crime without our 
adding unnecessarily to the depth of the coloring. It is, 
however, an accredited fact that the Prince of Wales, on 
several occasions and to various persons, did deny the 
receipt of any consideration for the bond to De Beaume. We 
presume not to question the confidence which ought to be 
placed in his royal word, but it requires no small degree of 
ingenuity to reconcile the truth of his royal declaration 
with the incontrovertible circumstances disclosed in this 
narrative, which prove him to be (calling things by their 
right name) a liar. For his conduct in the negotiation of 
this bond poor De Beaume was censured ■; though, from 
the facts that appear, it is not easy to say on what just 
ground the censure could be maintained. He was greatly 
blamed, however, and the displeasure against him 
amounted so high as to induce the princes to conceal the 
bond they had executed, which was actually done, the 
trustees delivering the bond for the express purpose ; which, 
notwithstanding the manifest injustice of the measure, was 
cancelled at Burlington House, in the presence of the Duke 
of Portland, on the 16th of November, 1790 — not quite one 
month after De Beaume had sent to the Prince of Wales 
more than one third of the whole sum as a single remit- 
tance. This remittance was made by De Beaume in dia- 
monds, through the bank of Perregaux at Paris, to the 
bank of Ransom, Morland, and Hammersley, on account of 
the princes. The diamonds thus remitted were to the 
amount of £38,653 10s. 

To animadvert upon the conduct of the Prince of Wales 
on this occasion would be a task which we will not take 
upon ourselves to perform. We have the bills of parcel of 
these diamonds now before us — they were disposed of by 



4^0 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 

the bankers for the benefit of the Prince ; on what ground 
of common justice, then, could the Prince declare that he 
had received no consideration whatever for the bond ? An 
act of this kind, committed by a private individual, would 
stamp his character for life ; we know not, then, why a 
prince can do that with impunity which, if done by a more 
humble individual, would subject him to the extreme pen- 
alty of the law. Well, indeed, might every exertion be 
made, which money or influence could command, to prevent 
these circumstances from being known by the public. The 
consequences resulting to the princes from their publicity 
might have been dreadful. The French Revolution had 
reduced kingships and princeships far below par ; the 
question of an hereditary right to govern was mooted 
at the foot of every throne in Europe ; wherever the 
chains of despotism clanked, or the fetters of superstition 
enthralled the human mind, there flashed forth the ethe- 
real fire of reason, thrones tottered, and monarchies 
trembled • the sceptre was no longer considered as the sym- 
bol of government, and allegiance was laughed at as a chim- 
era engendered in the brain of tyrants and despots. 

Mr. Perregaux was fully informed by this friendly and 
intimate correspondent of every circumstance connected 
with the bond, from the first introduction of De Beaume to 
him, and was particularly requested to pay attention to 
the business, and to answer any questions put to him con- 
cerning it, as by so doing he would oblige the Prince very 
much, who, in return, would very readily acknowledge the 
services of Mr. Perregaux by any mode in the power of 
the Prince. He was perfectly acquainted with the remit- 
tance of diamonds made by De Beaume to the Prince, with 
the dissatisfaction expressed by the Prince at De Beaume's 
conduct, with the cancelling of the bond, and with the 
determination taken by the Prince not to pay either the 
principal or the interest. 
21* 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 471 

Previous to De Beaume's trial an English gentleman 
was at Paris who had discharged several considerable 
employments, and who since that period has become Right 
Honorable, having distinguished himself by the possession 
of great abilities. In Paris he was a member of the 
Jacobin Club, and some of his sjjeeches in that assembly 
were communicated through the press to the British pub- 
lic. At the time alluded to, he had just begun to emerge 
from obscurity at Paris. His whole history was known to 
Mr. Perregaux, who at that time had been applied to, on 
the part of the princes, to get rid of the business entirely. 
The bond itself had been cancelled in London, and the 
next step was to get release from De Beaume of the 
agents employed at Paris. To this gentleman Mr. Perre- 
gaux applied for cooperation,* and, after some deliberation, 
it was determined to construe the bond into a treasonable 
practice against the French nation, for which De Beaume 
and his coadjutors should be apprehended, and for which it 
was also determined they should suffer death. 

De Beaume and his associates were accordingly appre- 
hended and imprisoned. The tribunal did not at first con- 
sider it expedient to treat the charge of borrowing money 
as criminal, and without great exertions on that occasion 
by Mr. Perregaux and his confederate they would have 
been acquitted. But this gentleman succeeded in impres- 
sing the tribunal with a belief in the criminal nature of the 
loan, by inflaming them against the prisoners, whom he 
represented as being in connection with the British princes, 
for the purpose of raising money to assist the French 
princes in anti-revolutionary measures, and in treasonable 
attempts against the republic. The very bond negotiated 
by the prisoners was denounced as treasonable in the face 
of it, for declaring George III to be King of Great Britain, 
France, and Ireland. The prisoners were tried, condemned 
and executed, within twenty-four hours ! 



472 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

Thus, in one day, perished Richard, Chaudot, Mestrirer, 
Mette, Be Beaume, and Aubert, either for negotiating the 
Prince's securities, or for purchasing shares of them, as was 
also the case with Yiette, a rich jeweler, who had purchased 
a hundred shares of the bond from De Beaume. The mur- 
derous principle thus laid down, and the precedent thus 
established, were adopted in subsequent instances ; and 
from that time every foreign creditor under De Beaume's 
bond who was sent out of England and landed on the con- 
tinent was executed in the same merciless mode, upon the 
same pretence, which was extended even to the creditors 
who had invested their money in purchasing shares of the 
bonds. The principals were the real culprits.* 

Would that we could here close this black catalogue of 
crime. The next victim who bled on the scaffold, for having 
been the purchaser of twenty shares of the Prince's bond, 
was Charles Yaucher, a banker in Paris, who quitted 
France with a large fortune in 1792. He fixed his residence 
in England, where he married an English lady. Having 
demanded payment of the interest on his shares of the 
Prince's bond, he was referred to the bank of Ransom & 
Co., when he was advised, if he wished to remain in Eng- 
land, never again to apply for his money 5 for, if he did, he 
would be sent out of the country, as many in his situation 
had already been. This threat did not deter him 5 he 
repeated his application, and was equally unsuccessful. He 
laid his case before Mr. Shepherd, afterwards Sir S. Shep- 
herd, Solicitor General, who decided that his claim upon the 
Prince was just and legal 5 and at the close of the opinion 
which that eminent lawyer gave are the following remark- 
able words : " If any action is brought with this case, it will 
require the clearest proof of the facts, and that there is no 
collusion between De Beaume and Yaucher, because, as a 
bill has been passed for the payment of His Royal High- 

* Suppressed Memoirs. Huish. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 473 

ness' debts, subjecting them to the examination of commis- 
sioners, it will be a strong argument against the justice of a 
demand that has been withheld from such examination; how- 
ever, there is nothing in the bill which prevents a creditor 
of His Royal Highness from suing, if he chooses, in prefer- 
ence to going before commissioners." 

In this opinion the learned counsel seems to have antici- 
pated the very objection that was raised by the commis- 
sioners, and the grounds on which they contested the 
validity of the claim. The Prince inserted it not in his 
schedule of debts, he disclaimed it in toto ; and, therefore, 
as the Prince disavowed it, the commissioners could not be 
called upon to allow it, and the only redress which Yaucher 
could hope to obtain was by an appeal to the laws of the 
country. A copy of the opinion of Mr. Shepherd was sent, 
with a polite note, to the Prince, hoping he would render 
all legal measures unnecessary by ordering the interest to 
be paid. The interest was not paid \ the application was 
renewed to him, adding that, if no satisfactory answer were 
returned, such measures would be adopted as would compel 
him to pay the amount. This threat sealed the destiny of 
Yaucher j for, on the 6th of October, an official order was 
given for him to quit England in four days. Having other 
pecuniary matters to arrange, he petitioned the Duke of 
Portland to allow him to remain until the issue of his claims 
had been determined. His petition was refused ; for, on 
the 11th of October, a warrant was signed by the Duke of 
Portland, directing William Ross and George Higgins, two 
of the King ; s messengers, to take Mr. Yaucher into custody 
till he should be sent out of the country. On the 15th he 
was taken into custody, and on the 20th he was carried to 
Harwich, to be sent from thence to Rotterdam, where 
he arrived on the 23d of the same month. Not long after 
his arrival on the continent, he was apprehended, taken to 
Paris, and thrown into prison, where he remained till the 



474 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

22d of December, 1795, when lie was tried on the same 
charges as De Beaurue, found guilty, and guillotined ! 

Our limits will not allow us to enter at full into the cases 
of Mr. D. Lovell, the editor of the Statesman, and that of 
Mr. Auriol; but proof is on record that, with the diamonds 
remitted by De Beaume, and the money advanced by Auriol, 
the sum received by the Prince amounted to between 
£60,000 and £70,000 sterling. 

Our comments shall be short. The pages of history pre. 
sent a melancholy picture of the turpitude of the human 
heart. If we investigate the character of the Kings of 
England from the conquest to the reign of George IV, and 
we were to write a catalogue of all the vices inherent in 
man's nature, and the crimes which have resulted from 
those vices, there is not one against which we could not select 
some individual king to affix his name as having been the 
perpetrator of it. The country has already determined 
against which vices the name of George IV ought to be 
affixed, and the history which we have now given of these 
bond transactions wil! invest him with an undisputable 
claim to that of swindler. The British princes, by their 
proceedings in the business, appear as if the law had no 
power over them — as if they could bind themselves with 
legal solemnity, and discharge their debts by a simple com- 
mand. 

Parliament came three times forward to discharge the 
debts of the Prince, but three times Avas Parliament de- 
ceived by schedules which concealed the post obits and the 
foreign bonds. Why this concealment took place must 
have been best known to the Prince ; but a post obit bond 
for £30,000, a bond for 330,000 guilders, and another of 
£100,000, besides the Hessian and other debts, are not 
such items in an account as escape the memory. But be 
the cause what it may, the sums never appeared in any 
schedule laid before Parliament. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 475 



(RUmyttx Whtotm. 



Great events distinguished the year 1812, of such 
national importance that the attention of the people had 
been in part diverted from the domestic troubles in the 
royal family, but they were now destined to again revive 
with absorbing interest, from the fact that Charlotte, the 
daughter of the Prince, was, with her mother, to figure in 
important scenes of the coming drama. 

During the summer of 1812 the intercourse between 
Caroline and her daughter was subjected to considerable 
restriction, so as almost to preclude any interchange of 
those affectionate attentions which should ever occur be- 
tween a mother and daughter. Her daughter, Charlotte, 
resided at this time chiefly at Windsor, and Was under the 
special care and protection of the Queen. Her removal 
thither, on the plea of ill health, was understood chiefly to 
be in order to prevent, as much as possible, her intimacy 
with her mother. On one occasion Caroline wrote a letter 
to the Queen and offered either to visit her daughter at 
Windsor, or that her daughter Charlotte might be allowed 
to attend on her. An answer was returned from the Queen 
that Her "Royal Highness'" studies were not to be inter- 
rupted. 

On another occasion Caroline travelled to Windsor ex- 
pressly to visit her daughter, and, as it was Sunday, when 
secular employments were set aside, there could not be any 
fear of interrupting her studies. She was, however, refused 
that gratification. She afterwards sent a letter to the Re- 
gent in which she explained her reason for determining 



476 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

not to appear at the drawing room, and expostulated with 
the resolution which he had taken of never meeting her 
upon any occasion in public or private. She demanded of 
" His Royal Highness" what circumstances could justify 
the proceeding he had thought fit to adopt ? She reminded 
tho Prince that, after the open persecution and mysterious 
inquiries upon the undefined charges, she had been restored 
by the King to the full enjoyment of her rank at his Court, 
upon her complete acquittal. 

This expostulation having been found useless she deter- 
mined to appeal to Parliament. She therefore wrote a letter 
to the Speaker of the House of Commons, inclosing copies 
of the correspondence with the Queen, and the letter to the 
Eegent. These papers were, on the 3d of June, read to the 
House. 

A member thus spoke on the subject : u No man now 
dares to say that she is guilty. Now, as to an event which, 
sooner or later, must happen — he meant the demise of the 
crown — is the Princess of Wales to be crowned ? She must 
be Crowned. Who doubts it ? It is whispered abroad that 
a coronation is not necessary. He believed it was. Will 
the right honorable gentleman say it is not? He dare not 
say so. Crowned she must be, unless tJiere be some dark, base 
plot at work — some black act yet to do ; unless the Parliament 
consent hereafter to be made a party to some nefarious transac- 
tion." 

There was a hidden significance under these words which 
certain members then well understood. The existence of 
another wife, whose name might be forced before the Chris- 
tian people of the realm as the only one eligible in the sight 
and by the laws of God to be crowned Queen of England, 
the laws of man and Act of Parliament to the contrary not- 
withstanding. 

Caroline still continuing to be treated with indignity, 
by being excluded from the Court, the extravagancies of 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 477 

the Regent again became a subject of public consideration. 
Rumors were afloat, at first vague and undefined, but in 
a short time, upon investigation, they were found to be 
well grounded, that debts of a very large amount had been 
very recently contracted j and although the precepts of 
economy had been instilled into him by the Legislature of 
the country, and he had promised obedience to them, yet 
he had no sooner obtained his point than he returned to his 
former excesses and to a lavish system of expenditure, 
which his finances, ample and affluent as they were, could 
not support. Disgrace, which has in general a salutary 
influence on the actions of man, appeared to have lost all 
power over those of the Prince Regent 5 he was no sooner 
bleached of one disgrace than he fell into another of a still 
deeper nature ; his habitual contraction of debt, which in a 
member of the lower grades of society would have been 
stigmatized as a gross and culpable departure from the ack- 
nowledged principles of probity and integrity, appeared in a 
certain degree to belong so to his nature as to have become 
one of those habits which he could not shake off, and into 
which he fell, as it were, involuntarily whenever the oppor- 
tunity presented itself. It must, however, be taken into 
consideration that about this time he had fixed his u unal- 
terable affections v on a certain marchioness, and the usual 
preliminaries were to be gone through before the citadel 
could be brought to surrender. The first approaches were 
made by the irresistible power of diamond necklaces, suc- 
ceeded by miniatures, and other invaluable mementoes of 
his royal person, typical of the constancy of his affections. 
The following anecdote will, however, show that in one 
instance, at least, his love was not held in very high esti- 
mation : His High Lord Chamberlain had at this time an 
elegant female under his protection, of the name of Menzies, 
who sank by degrees till she became the lounger of the lob- 
bies of the theatres, the midnight walker of the streets, and 



S. 



478 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

finished her career of vice and dissipation in a hospital. In 
the zenith of her beauty (for in form and symmetry she was 
the beau ideal of the artist) her box at the Opera House was 
the resort of all the young nobility, and these were sexa- 
genarian libertines, who moved round her like the satellites 
of a planet, but whom she repulsed with all the indignity of 
the most frigid matron. To this lady the Prince sent his 
portrait, at the back of which was inscribed, in pearls, 
" If amour est le char me de la vie. 77 The portrait was returned 
with the inscription effaced, and the following one substi- 
tuted: " li amour Wun Prince ne vautpas grande chose."* 

We believe that we are below the truth when we affirm 
that the Prince of Wales squandered above half a million 
of the people's money in presents upon his courtesans. The 
major part of the diamonds, which were remitted by De 
Beaume from Paris, became the property of three of his 
most favored ladies, and some portion of which afterwards, 
by some means, fell into the possession of a pawnbroker in 
Wardour street, Soho. 

The residence of Caroline in England was now drawing to 
a close. Deprived of all intercourse with her daughter, she 
saw that she was the means of greatly disturbing her hap- 
piness j and the imputation was openly made that Charlotte 
was induced by her mother to break off her intended union 
with the Prince of Orange. This, however, we are enabled 

* When lie died they found £10,000 in his boxes, and money scattered 
about everywhere — a great deal of gold. There were above five hundred 
pocket-books, of different dates, and in every one money — guineas, one pound 
notes, one, two, or three in each. There never was anything like the quan- 
tity of trinkets arid trash that they found. He had never given away or 
parted with anything. There was a prodigious quantity of hair — women's 
hair — of all colors and lengths, some locks with the powder and pomatum 
still sticking to them, heaps of women's gloves, gages d'amour which he 
had got at balls, and with the perspiration still marked on the fingers, 
notes and letters in abundance, but not much that was of any political conse- 
quence, and the whole was destroyed." — GreviUe. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 479 

positively to contradict; for the rumor was circulated by 
the agents of the Prince, in order to throw the blame of the 
rupture on Caroline, and thereby injure her in the estima- 
tion of the people, who considered the union with the House 
of Nassau as the most eligible which could be entered into 
for the general interests of the nation. The dislike which 
Caroline had imbibed for the Prince of Orange was entirely 
of a personal nature ; she considered herself insulted by 
him; he had offered her a personal affront in refusing to 
visit her, and it was natural that Charlotte should resent 
any insult that was offered to her mother. It cannot, how- 
ever, be doubted that this feeling on the part of Charlotte 
may have contributed to increase and confirm any repug- 
nance to the union, but that it was the primary cause of the 
rupture cannot for a moment be entertained. 

Matters were drawing to a crisis ; the storm was gather- 
ing fast, and heavy it fell on the heads devoted to its fury. 
Charlotte, by her kindness and affable manner, had ob- 
tained an ascendancy over her establishment at Warwick 
House, so that the Prince Eegent or his advisers were not 
able to prevent some kind of communication between 
Caroline and her daughter; and, notwithstanding the 
severe prohibition, Caroline went once to Warwick House, 
a short time previously to the final rejection of the Prince 
of Orange. This circumstance was, however, made known 
to the Prince, and on the 12th of July he made his sudden 
appearance at Warwick House, and informed Charlotte 
that she must immediately take up her residence at Carl- 
ton House, and thence go to Cranbourn Lodge ; and that 
five ladies whom he named, among whom were the 
Countess of Ilchester and the Countess Dowager of Ross- 
lyn, were in an adjoining room in readiness to wait upon 
her. Charlotte made many expostulations, and some very 
spirited remonstrances 5 but the Prince remaining firm, she 
appeared to acquiesce in his determination, and only asked 



480 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

permission to retire for a few minutes to compose herself 
before she was introduced to the ladies. The request was 
granted, and while the Prince was engaged in a close con- 
versation with Miss Knight, a lady of Charlotte's house- 
hold, in an agony of despair she privately left Warwick 
House, and throwing herself into a hackney coach in Cock- 
spur street, gave the coachman a guinea to drive her to 
Connaught House, the residence of her mother. There she 
found that she was at Blackheath, and she despatched a 
servant to her mother to meet her. The surprise of the 
Prince Regent on finding that his daughter had escaped ex- 
ceeded all bounds ; his anger rose to the highest pitch, and 
the confusion at Warwick House was beyond description — 
he raved, cursed, and swore fiercely. The flight of Charlotte, 
in a fit of passion, was the only fact of which anybody was 
certain; but whither she had gone, and What was the object 
of her flight, were merely matters of painful surprise. At 
length, the probability of her having repaired to Con- 
naught House was suggested, and the old, infirm Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury was despatched to bring back the 
young fugitive. Sicard, however, an old servant of Caro- 
line, bolted the hall door against the prelate, who returned 
to Warwick House to relate the failure of his mission. The 
Duke of York was next despatched to bring back the fair 
runaway vie et armis. A very spirited scene took place, in 
which the juvenile militant would have triumphed over the 
Field Marshal of England, and have sent him back with 
the same kind of deathless laurels as he had reaped at 
Dunkirk, had not »Mr. Brougham, who had been sent for 
by Caroline, informed Charlotte that, by the laws of the 
land, she must obey her father's commands. 

This affair excited considerable anxiety throughout the 
nation. It was reported that Charlotte was actually placed 
in a state of duresse. 

Shortly after this romantic escape of Charlotte from 



THE PEIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 481 

Warwick House, a report was in general circulation that 
Caroline had determined to leave England, and to retire to 
the continent, where her future abode was to be fixed. On 
the 9th of August, 1814, she sailed from Lancing, near 
Worthing, and landed at Hamburg on the 16th. 

It must be admitted that the character of Caroline was 
never properly understood in England. As to the charges 
of general levity and flippancy of conduct; distinct from 
the main allegation of adultery, it must be conceded, even 
by her friends, that she possessed in too great a degree the 
familiarity of the French and the peculiarity of the Italian 
character. Her conduct was frequently inexplicable. 
Prudence was a word with which she was not sufficiently 
familiar, and her virtues were splendid and public, not 
retired and unassuming. Her friendships were, if possible, 
too ardent, and her antipathies too inveterate ; but she wa* 
generous, noble minded, honorable, just, and forgiving. 
She was all kindness and sensibility ; but she was so un- 
accustomed to sincerity and constancy that when she dis- 
covered these virtues in an individual she valued them, if 
possible, too highly. Alas ! she was too much the child 
of circumstances, and it is a lamentable fact that she was 
the child of sorrow. If she were imprudent in any of her 
domestic arrangements, it should not be forgotten that, at 
the age of twenty-eight, she was practically a widow. ]S"or 
did the Queen-consort of George III endeavor to relieve 
the misery of her situation by her advice or direction. 
Almost unaided, she had originally to form her establish- 
ment, her society, her habits'; and she was, after all, a 
foreigner to English manners and English prejudices. 

She quitted the country ; left the Prince, her husband, to 
enjoy, unmolested by her presence, the favors of the houris 
of his harem and the adulation of his friends. Caroline 
knew before she left her home to marry George that he was 
married to Mrs. Fitzherbert, that he already had another 



482 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

wife wedded to him by the solemn rites of the Church of 
which she was a professed member. She admitted this, 
and in after life attributed all her misery and trouble to 
this one fact; this, she said, when examined by Parlia- 
ment, and was asked if she had committed no wrong, she 
should have replied, "None, except her marrying the 
Prince of Wales." 

It cannot be properly contended that, if Caroline had 
been really guilty of the charges brought against her, she 
should not have been tried and condemned, for no circum- 
stances can constitute any apology for the commission of 
crimes so flagrant and detestable, so long perpetrated and 
so frequently repeated, as those which she was stated to 
have committed. If she were guilty, then, for the honor of 
the country, for the benefit of mankind, for the dignity of 
the crown, it was right that she should be not only ex- 
posed but punished. But not condemned unheard; not 
denied the prayers of the people before one charge was sub- 
stantiated ; not alienated from the society of her only child 
on a mere imputation of guilt ; not held up as an object of 
universal detestation before one allegation was proved. 
It was right that, if guilty, she should be punished, but 
not to be tried by her accusers — by her decided, invete- 
rate enemies. 

The subsequent trial of Caroline revealed one of the most 
villanous conspiracies ever concocted against the purity of 
woman. One witness unblushingly testified not only to 
looking, through a keyhole, but also cutting the drapery 
which hung over the other side, in order to obtain an unob- 
structed view beyond. How would the character of Queen 
Elizabeth stand in history if she had been subjected to such 
"keyhole espionage f 

Notwithstanding the American people are at the present 
moment watching with intense interest the progress of a 
celebrated trial through the Courts, they can scarcely form 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 483 

an adequate conception of the unparalleled excitement the 
trial of Caroline caused throughout the United Kingdom. 
At the clubs and drawing rooms, as at the village inn and 
rustic hamlet, it was the sole topic. Greville, the author of 
the celebrated Memoirs which are now the occasion of so 
much protestation among the British nobility, was present 
each day, and speaks in vivid language of the excitement. 

Caroline now left a country that must have been hateful 
to her. Watched, incensed and betrayed at every step by 
malignity, she fled the presence of a people already inclined 
to protect and defend her. Hired and venal wretches 
accompany her flight, and in the end compel her to return 
to England to vindicate her character. For a wife so 
treated, so maligned and so abused, it would have been 
but poetical justice to punish the crowd of her accusers ; 
yet, though it might have justified the moral of the catas- 
trophe, it could not expiate the enormity of the offence. 
But the close of the drama would hardly have satisfied the 
cruel intentions of the author. The acquittal of the Queen 
afforded room neither for further slander nor open defiance. 
But that which the law could not effect — which the array 
of justice could not intimidate, nor power persuade her to 
abandon — was brought about, as is frequently the case in 
human affairs, by a comparatively trifling and insignifi- 
cant incident. 

It has been admitted that there was no real state neces- 
sity for the inquiries which were instituted into the conduct 
of Caroline. The succession was not in danger, for George 
had two wives j the brothers of the Eegent were numer- 
ous, although none of them appeared to have any inclina- 
tion for the married state until after the death of Char- 
lotte, when the whole fraternity ransacked the German 
Courts and returned to England conferring an additional 
blessing on it, present and prospective, by the almost cer- 
tain perpetuation of the Brunswick breed. Caroline being 



\ 

484 THE PEIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

on tlie continent, she conld be considered in no other light 
than as an alien $ she was practically divorced from her 
husband, if George was such ; and although if she did com- 
mit crimes, justice and virtue would have demanded her 
punishment, yet, as the favorite ladies of the Court of the 
Regent were well known, and even their names uncon- 
cealed, it was not delicate nor proper that punctilios should 
have been too nicely regarded by the one party, when, if 
the same rigid principles had been applied to the case of 
the other, the result would have been far less satisfactory. 

It was also intimated, by those likely to know, that the 
King's first wife — by God's holy law his legitimate one — 
was enceinte, and if an heir was wanted for the enlightened 
British nation, a lawful one would be found ; but, perhaps, 
it might require an u Act of Parliament" to permit the sub- 
ject to be born ,• as it appears in all such matters that 
august body arrogated the powers. Years after u a claim- 
ant " was found, or put in an appearance, claiming to have 
been this lawful subject and rightful heir to the throne ; but 
the writer can find no real authority for belief in this, 
although Lord Stourton mentions the fact in his letter to 
the Duke of Wellington when endeavoring to get posses- 
sion of the document contained in that mysterious box 
sealed up in Ooutts' bank. 

When the discarded wife JSTo. 2 of George IV, by grace 
of God King of England, Defender of the Faith, etc., 
Heaven help us! was roaming on the continent, she was 
repulsed from some of the Courts where she should have 
been received with the exalted honor due her rank had she 
not borne the stigma of an adulteress. 

In Germany, in particular — the country in the defence of 
the liberties of which her brother had died, and on the 
plains of which her father had braved the storm which 
threatened to involve the liberties of Europe — in that very 
country, the avenues to its stiff and formal Courts were 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 



485 



closed against her, and she left her natal soil to be a wan- 
derer among Arabs and Mahoininedans. 

Under the peculiar circumstances in which she was 
placed, it must be acknowledged that she should have 
conducted herself with peculiar circumspection, and have 
endeavored to avoid even the appearance of evil. That 
she indulged in vices of the most immoral description has 
been falsely and incorrectly stated ; yet it must be admit- 
ted that, if she had duly and properly estimated the prob- 
able effects which many acts that she performed were 
likely to produce, she would have abstained from their 
commission, and thus, to a certain extent, prevented evils 
which embittered her future life and speedily consigned hei 
to the tomb. 

The departure of Caroline from England put an end 3 for 
a time, to all discussion on the royal differences. The 
junta of Carlton House gave the huzza of triumph j mirth 
and jollity resounded in its halls ; the Eegent looked 
proudly around him amidst his blaze of beauty, and in the 
intoxication of love and wine flew his social hours away. 




486 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 



ffltapto gmxvtiWh. 



England had now reached the zenith of her military re- 
nown, and lost some of her naval prestige in the war with 
America.* Napoleon, her dreaded enemy, who had sat 
upon a column of thrones, his footstool the neck of princes, 
was a caged eagle upon a barren rock. 

The blessings of a permanent peace were promised to the 
people, yet the public mind was in a highly feverish state, 
which subsequently broke out into acts of riot and destruc- 
tion. The ostensible cause of these disturbances was that 
never failing source of discord, the Corn Bill, by which the 
people were brought to a state of comparative famine, well 
illustrated by a certain caricature representing an emaci- 
ated man, lying on a wretched bed, surrounded by all the 
attributes of abject want and misery. Above him hung 
suspended, at a distance too high for him to reach, a loaf of 
bread; while the starving wretch is made to exclaim, "If 
you do not fall, I must rise." 

At this period the public attention was again drawn to 
another never failing source of disquiet to the country, the 
debts of the Prince, his unbounded extravagance, and par- 
ticularly to the mal-appropriation of £100,000 which was 
voted by Parliament as an outfit for the Prince on his 
assuming the Regency. At a time when the people were 
suffering the most accumulated distresses — when the cry re- 
sounded through the metropolis, "We will die for bread" — 
who could read the account of the scandalous extravagance 

* Suppressed edition. 





> 



If: 



t1» 




THE KING AS A GENTLEMAN. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 487 

carried on by the Prince, as declared in Parliament by Mr. 
Tierney in referring to the civil list, without an excess of 
feeling bordering closely on a spirit of rebellion, and eradi- 
cating every principle of loyalty from the breasts of the 
people ? The statement of Mr. Tierney was as follows, 
which staggers an American : 

" The charge for furniture for Carlton House alone, dur- 
ing two years and three quarters, was £160,000, exclu- 
sive of the £100,000 on the motion of Mr. Perceval for an 
outfit — this made £260,000. Mr. Perceval stated that the 
extra expense was for plate and other ornamental matters. 
The upholstery expenses last year were £19,000 ; ormolu 
was charged £2,900, china and glass £12,000. Linen- 
drapery, etc., an enormous sum 5 the silversmith and the 
wardrobe occasioned charges to an immense amount j the 
former no less than £130,000 in three years. The average 
expense for plate and jewels was £23,000 a year. To 
whom," Mr. Tierney asked, " did that plate belong °? He 
believed that many of the items ought jjfbe charged to the 
Prince Regent, who had a privy purse of "about £70,000 a 
year. His object was to put the control of the household 
expenditure in the hands of responsible persons. No man 
was more willing that the crown should enjoy becoming 
splendor, but it should be regulated by strict economy. 
He believed that if the Prince Regent had some honest 
advisers about him, who should remind him, when ordering 
articles to such an enormous amount, that he was only run- 
ning into expenses that would lead to unpleasant discus- 
sions, a great deal might be saved. What occasion was 
there that His Royal Highness should send to the up- 
holsterer, the furniture man, and other such people ? No 
man could suppose that he could occupy his attention with 
such frivolous objects." The tailor, shoemaker, and up- 
holsterer were given the precedence over statesmen and 
savants. 



488 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

On one occasion the following equivoque took place be- 
tween the Prince and his servant. One morning the ser- 
vant entered his apartment with the information, " She is 
come, your Royal Highness." " She /" exclaimed the Prince, 
" who is she V u She is come," repeated the servant. " I 
ask," replied the Prince in an angry tone, " who is she f 
where does she come from ?" " It is Shea the tailor from 
Bond street, your Royal Highness." The Prince smiled, 
and the Shea was admitted immediately into his presence. 

In proceeding with his subject Mr. Tierney denied any 
wish to interfere with the interior economy of the royal 
household, or to examine the cooks and turnspits, but he 
would ask was there equal profusion displayed even in the 
expenditure of the continental princes'? The House, he 
said, would not surely sanction that enormous and merci- 
less expenditure which the papers disclosed. While the 
people felt that they paid liberally for supporting the dig- 
nity of the crown, they did expect that it would show some- 
thing like sympathy for them in their present burdened 
state. He concluded by moving that this committee be 
empowered to send for and examine Mr. Mash, of the Lord 
Chamberlain's Office. 

A disclosure at this time of the shameful extravagance of 
the Prince Regent might have been productive of the most 
serious consequences. The minds of the people were 
already inflamed, and driven almost to desperation by 
want; and the kriowledge that the ruler of the realm, so 
far from sympathizing in their fate, was actually adding to 
their burden by a ruthless expenditure and an extrava- 
gance unparalleled, might have lighted up the flame of re- 
bellion, and expelled the House of Brunswick from the 
throne of England. A rumor had been for some time afloat 
that the £100,000 voted as an outfit for the Prince, on his 
assuming the Regency, had not been appropriated according 
to the purpose for which the grant was made ; but that it 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 489 

had been actually applied to the payment of debt, and, as 
such, a fraud had been committed upon Parliament and 
the country, which required a Ml and solemn investigation. 
The aim of Mr. Tierney was to extract some information on 
this subject; and Lord Catlereagh, in his reply, admitted 
the rumor to be true, but glossed it over in such a manner 
as to make it appear that the people would eventually be 
the gainers by the false appropriation of the money. The 
general statement of Lord Oastlereagh was, however, by no 
means calculated to appease the irritation of the people, 
when he attempted to account for the extraordinary expen- 
diture of the Prince's household. The expense, he said, 
that was incurred by the visits of the sovereigns was 
£132,000. Deducting this from the excess in the expense 
of the three quarters, there would be about £90,000 of ex- 
traordinary expenditure. Of this there was between 
£15,000 and £20,000 for the establishment of the Princess 
Charlotte. There were other charges which reduced the 
whole excess to £60,000, which he was prepared to admit 
was the extraordinary expenditure of these three quarters. 
He would also admit that, in this department, there was 
an excess in the whole of three years of from £80,000 to 
£90,000 ! But his lordship said Mr. Tierney aggravated 
this by adding to it the £100,000 which the Prince Regent 
received for outfit. But the House should recollect that, 
while His Royal Highness acted as restricted Regent, he 
never received anything from Parliament whatever, al- 
though additional expense was necessarily entailed upon 
him. When unrestricted, that his creditors, as Prince of 
Wales, might not suffer, he appropriated one half of his 
income, as Prince of Wales, about £60,000 a year, to their 
payment. Neither was the £100,000, granted by way of out- 
fit, applied to the equipment of Sis Royal Highness, but ap- 
plied to the liquidation of his debt, by which means the 
£60,000 a year, devoted to the payment of debt, would be 



490 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING-. 

a year and a half sooner at the disposal of the public. Of 
the £39,000 expended in furniture, it should be recollected 
£17,000 was for furnishing what was called the Cottage at 
"Windsor.* A great deal of ridicule had been thrown on 
the name, most unfairly. It might be called a cottage, be- 
cause it was thatched ; but the fact was that, though not a 
residence for a monarch, it was a very comfortable one for a 
family, and the only one of which the Prince could make 
use when he visited Windsor. His lordship concluded by 
stating that, for the purpose of watching the expenditure 
of the civil list, a warrant had recently passed the Privy 
Seal directing that estimates of every expenditure should 
be given to a responsible officer, whose approbation and 
order should be essential to every tradesman for the pay- 
ment of his accounts. 

A very long debate ensued on the motion of Mr. Tierney ; 
and some opinion may be formed of the temper of the 
House of Commons on the subject, when it is stated that it 
was only lost by a majority of fifty-six, in a house composed 
of 294 members. 

The matter, however, did not rest here ; for, on the 31st 
of May, Lord Al thorp resumed the subject of the Prince 
Regent's debts, and described at length the nature of the 
grant of £100,000 to the Prince, and contended that it could 
be legally only applied to the outfit, whereas it had been 
applied to the payment of the Prince's debts. The noble 

* " Sefton gave me an account of the dinner in St. George's Hall on the 
King's birthday, which was magnificent, excellent, and well served. Bridge («) 
came down with the plate, and was hid during the dinner behind the great 
wine cooler, which weighs 1j)Q0 ounces, and he told Sefton afterwards that 
the plate in the room was worth £200,000. There is another service of 
gold plate, which was not used at all. The King has made it all over to the 
crown. All this plate was ordered by George IV, and never used ; his delight 
was ordering what the public had to pay for." — Greville. 

(a) Of the famous house of Rundeil & Bridge, the great silversmiths and jewellers of 
the day. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OE A KING. 491 

lord entered upon the subject of the Prince's debts, ad* 
verted to the mode in which the matter had previously 
been treated by Lord Castlereagh, and said that a delusion 
had been practised on the House, the money had been ob • 
tained for one object, and applied to another. He con- 
cluded by moving that a committee be appointed to inquire 
into the application of £100,000 granted by Parliament to 
the Prince Begent to defray the expenses of assuming the 
royal authority, and that the said committee have the 
power to send for and examine papers and persons. 

To those who wish to be in possession of a finished speci- 
men of consummate sophistry in a politician's speech, the 
following statements, as given by Lord Castlereagh, will 
furnish them with the most ample materials. He felt him- 
self like a fish entangled in a net, when all its struggling 
and wriggling only thrust it further into the meshes. He 
floundered away in the mud, hoping thereby to raise such a 
density and obscurity about him that no one could discern 
the real object by which the confusion was occasioned. 
The noble fish was, however, rather roughly handled. Mr. 
Tierney seized him by the gills, with all his mud about him j 
and had it not been for the gross and scandalous corruption 
which then distinguished the "collective wisdom" of the 
nation, the Prince B-egent would have received a castigation 
which would have shown him that that which would be 
termed immoral and guilty in a private individual partakes 
of the same odium when committed by a prince. 

Lord Castlereagh, after adverting to the state of the civil 
list in the reign of George II, proceeded to the defence of 
the appropriation of the £100,000. It was said that no esti- 
mate had been given of the application of that sum, which 
was the object of the present motion. He would answer 
that, according to the direction of the Act, it was applied to 
the charges incident to the Prince assuming the royal au- 
thority — charges considered much greater by the necessary 



492 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING-. 

expenses of the year in which, the Prince had been restricted 
Regent, and for which no public provision had been made, 
but which were defrayed out of his property as Prince. If 
the Prince, for the security of his property, has sold out 
everything, or consigned it to trustees, on assuming the 
reigns of government, the public would have had to provide 
an establishment of horses, carriages, furniture, wine, etc., 
amounting not to £100,000, but to several hundred thousand 
pounds. But of this £100,000, the sum of £97,000 was ap- 
plied to small debts of the Prince, which, to the amount of 
£80,000, had been contracted within the year I The u noble 
lord" concluded by observing that the £50,000 voted for 
His " Royal Highness" 7 debts had been so applied ; and 
the sum of £100,000 was applied strictly within the inten- 
tion of the Act, to the charges of his assumption of the sov- 
ereign authority. 

Mr. Tierney said the real question was whether the 
£100,000 had been voted in conformity to the Act. He was 
appealed to by the noble lord, as having been present at a 
fete given by tho Prince when this sum was voted.* He 
certainly remembered that fete; it was the last time he had 
been at Carlton House. He had since lost his ticket. But 
he denied that the Prince was at any increased expense 
during the year of his restricted Regency ; and he would 
ask, was it a decent argument of the noble lord to suggest 
that the Prince of Wales should sell his wine and furniture 
to the Prince Regent? But would the Prince have a right 
to sell his property, as suggested by the noble lord? Had 
not Carlton House, and everything belonging to it, been 

* The £100,000 mentioned here was no sooner received by the Prince 
than he determined to give a fete upon the occasion, although it must not 
be supposed that the cause which led to it was openly expressed ; but, at 
a time when the country was actually verging on positive famine, this 
thoughtless, reckless Prince gives a fete, the cost of which was calculated 
at £15,000! extracted from the very bowels of a starving people. Britons, 
how long? how long? 
23 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 493 

made royal property by the parliamentary arrangement for 
paying his debts °i Mr. Tierney next proceeded to animad- 
vert on the answer of Mr. Grey, secretary to the trustees 
who had applied this sum, and described it as a deliberate 
insnlt to the Honse. This sum, he contended, was impro- 
priated by act of Parliament, and that impropriation had 
been violated. If the House shut its eyes to such a viola- 
tion in a higher quarter, they could no longer visit with 
merited reprehension the same misconduct in persons of a 
humbler description. He looked upon it as a sdly argu- 
ment that horses, carriages, and furniture must have been 
purchased for the Prince Regent. Did the noble lord mean 
to say that the Prince was not provided with those articles 
before he was called to exercise the royal functions, or that 
the Prince Eegent must purchase them from the Prince of 
Wales! It was always the wish of every friend to his 
country that his debts should be paid. 

On the 5ch of June, Mr. Bennett asked Lord Castlereagh, 
in Parliament, whether he had auy objection to state the 
amount of the debts of the Prince Eegent. Lord Castle- 
reagh said that, " up to the 20th of May, there remained 
£379,000 undischarged against His Royal Highness ! " 
($1,695,000 ! ) 

Perhaps not a more unseasonable or unpropitious season 
could have been chosen for the agitation of the Prince's 
debts. The people were not in a mood to receive any fresh 
instances of his extravagance $ and the flimsy arguments 
which were used by ministers to palliate the appropriation 
of the £100,000 only tended further to exasperate the public 
mind, and to diminish the people's attachment to royalty. 
This feeling was particularly distinguishable when, in a 
short time afterwards, the Duke of Cumberland applied for 
an addition of £6,000 to his income, in consequence of his 
marriage with the Princess of Salm. This was refused by the 
House of Commons, with some severe censures on the con- 



494 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

duct of several of the members of the royal family. The 
Duke of Cumberland, it is well known, was the most 
unpopular of all the British princes, and the reasons we 
do not feel called upon to discuss. His marriage was 
regarded with complete indifference by the people, and 
would not have excited the least attention had it not been 
followed with another attack upon the public treasury. A 
royal marriage in England means additional burdens upon 
the people, and, at the present day, are an unfailing source 
for radicals in their arguments for reform. The following 
extract from the letter of an intelligent correspondent of 
the New York Evening Post refers to the late marriage of 
the Duke of Edinburgh and the royal pensions : 

"London, January 12th, 1874. 
******** 

The royal marriage is getting to be a theme of common conversation and 
newspaper comment. The Prince and Princess of Wales, Prince Leopold, 
and all the rest of them, except the Queen and Princess Beatrice, have 
repaired to St. Petersburg to witness the ceremony and bring back the 
happy pair. The republicans, though, and all those who rind their exponent 
in Reynolds' Newspaper — all the followers of Bradlaugh and Odger — make 
this the occasion of all manner of flings at the 'Fiddler Prince,' declare that 
the marriage is the price paid by England for surrendering gradually her 
possessions in India, and point to the robbery of these ' imperial paupers and 
royal horse leeches.' All the radical journals print part of the annual civil 
list, as follows, and then inform their readers that it is but a mere trifle of 
what the working people are called upon to pay in pensions : 

Princess Royal (Crown Princess of Prussia) £128,000 

Prince of Wales 400,000 

Princess of Wales 100,000 

Prince Alfred 105,000 

Prince Arthur 30,000 

Princess Alice (of Hesse) 12,000 

Princess Helena (of Schleswig, etc.) 42,000 

Princess Louise (of Lome) ' 12,000 

Princess Mary (of Teck) 13,000 

Princess Augusta (of Mecklenburg-Strelitz) 90,000 

The Duchess of Cambridge 90,000 

The Duke of Cambridge 276,000 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 495 

One writer, whose pungency of phrase is something remarkable, declares 
that ' next year Prince Leopold obtains his majority, and the begging box 
will be rattled in Parliament for him. Two years afterwards a similarly 
unpleasant sound will be heard in behalf of Princess Beatrice, and Heaven 
only knows when this system of royal begging will cease.' " 

These are some of the pensions paid by the taxpayers of 
Great Britain. What are the services rendered for such 
imperial reward ? 

The year 1816, notwithstanding the great and splendid 
deeds which the British arms had achieved during the pre- 
ceding year, opened with distress and discontent on the 
part of the people. The Prince Eegent seemed to think 
that the Battle of Waterloo was to be considered as a pana- 
cea for all the calamities under which the people were suffer- 
ing. Legitimacy was confirmed, the line of a hundred 
kings was restored, and the Eegent of England was, in his 
own estimation, the greatest monarch on the earth. 

The session of 1816 was opened by commission ; the 
Prince Eegent declined opening it in person, for lie knew 
well that the speech which he would have to deliver was a 
direct mockery upon the people, as being founded on false- 
hoods which, the meanest of his subjects, to their great 
sorrow, could detect at first sight of them. At a time when 
distress was universal, when the channels of commerce 
were choked up, the commissioners, in the name of the 
Prince Eegent, were authorized to tell the people that the 
Prince was happy to inform the House of Commons that 
the manufactures, commerce, and revenue of the United 
Kingdom were in a flourishing condition. It was no con- 
solation to the people to tell them that they were covered 
with glory, at the same time that they had no food where- 
with to satisfy the ordinary cravings of their nature. It 
was an insult upon them for their Eegent to talk of 
economy, when he was speeding as much upon a 
thatched cottage as his predecessors did upon a palace. 



496 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

when so exquisite was his taste, so magnificent his ideas, 
that he could not endure to see the same furniture 
for two years successively. He told the people that the 
arts and sciences were in a nourishing condition, and by 
way of practical demonstration he gave eight hundred 
guineas for a clock, a thousand for a Chinese cabinet, and 
ninety thousand dollars for jewels to a favorite mistress. 
He spoke of the necessity of supporting the dignity 
of the crown, and, by way of illustrating the principle, 
he appointed an additional number of lords of the 
bedchamber, as if the dignity of the crown consisted in 
a batch of titled paupers preceding royalty on its way 
to its dormitory $ whereas the dignity of the Prince 
Regent would have been much better consulted if one of 
them, in bowing to him at the door, would have whispered 
in his ear, as a subject for his midnight lucubrations, that 
his dignity would have been exalted if he would have 
apportioned his expenses to the circumstances of the times, 
and have reminded him that the causes of the French 
Re volution originated in royal extravagance. 

From these proceedings of a public nature the attention 
of the people was withdrawn to the all-engrossing topic of 
the marriage of Charlotte. Under the peculiar circumstan- 
ces which distinguished the royal family at this period, the 
hopes of the nation were centred in her. The prospects of 
a legitimate succession to the crown rested on very slender 
grounds ; for, with the exception of her, no other legitimate 
issue was known in the royal family. The marriage of the 
Duke of Cumberland did not promise much 5 his consort 
had been twice married, and no living issue was the result 
of those marriages. The Prince of Orange had been for- 
mally rejected by Charlotte, on account, it was reported, of 
an attachment having sprung up in her bosom for Prince 
Leopold, of Coburg Saalfeld, who had visited London with 
the allied sovereigns, and who had been introduced to Char- 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 497 

lotte by the Duchess of Oldenburg. No doubt exists that 
the duchess used all her talents to foster the attachment 
which Charlotte had formed $ for she was thereby further- 
ing the views of her own Court, although she knew she 
was acting in direct opposition to that at which she was 
then a visitor. The remonstrances of her father in favor of 
the Prince of Orange had no effect ; they only seemed to 
increase her repugnance to the union ; and, finding that her 
affections were placed on another, the interests of the 
nation demanded that her inclinations should not be 
thwarted, and accordingly a- messenger was despatcned to 
Germany to Prince Leopold, with the unexpected but 
highly gratifying intelligence that he had been selected by 
Charlotte as the partner of her throne and bed. Prince 
Leopold was at Berlin when the invitation of the Prince 
Regent was sent to him ; he immediately obeyed the sum- 
mons, and hastened to the high destiny to which he was 
called. 

It would be extraneous in this place to enter into auy 
analytical detail of the character of Prince Leopold ; we are 
no strangers to the prejudices which existed in the minds of 
some people against him, but we have good reason to know 
that the majority of those prejudices have no foundation in 
truth. It would, perhaps, have been more consistent in 
those people, if, before they heaped their abuse upon Prince 
Leopold, they had looked around them and had examined 
whether there were or not other illustrious individuals 
within the sphere of their observation who were prone to 
still greater vices than Prince Leopold. 

The rumors which had been for some time afloat respect- 
ing the marriage of Charlotte were eventually fully con- 
firmed, by a message which was presented to the House of 
Lords, on the 14th of March, relative to the intended mar- 
riage of Charlotte to Prince Leopold of Coburg Saalfeld; 
and on the 15th the subject of their provision came on to be 



498 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

discussed in the House of Commons. The Chancellor of 
the Exchequer proposed an allowance of £60,000 to the 
Prince and his intended wife, Charlotte, of which sum 
£10,000 would form the privj purse of her Eoyal Highness. 
In the event of her demise, £50,000 a year would be con- 
tinued to the Prince. The present allowance of Charlotte 
being no longer requisite, there would be a saving of 
£30,000 a year on the civil list. To prevent the royal 
pair from being encumbered, he should propose an outfit of 
£50,000 j it was computed that £40,000 of this sum would 
be necessary for plate, wine, carriages, etc., and £10,000 for 
her dress and jewels. A further application for money 
would be made, when a suitable residence should be found 
for their Eoyal Highnesses. If Charlotte were to become a 
widow, she was to have the whole £60,000. The eldest 
child, being presumptive heir to the throne, was to be edu- 
cated as the king directs. The following article of the mar- 
riage treaty we copy at length : 

" Art. Y. — It is understood and agreed that Her Royal Highness Prin- 
cess Charlotte Augusta shall not, at any time, leave the United Kingdom 
without the permission, in writing, of His Majesty, or of the Prince Regent 
acting in the name and on the behalf of His Majesty, and without Her Royal 
Highness' own consent. And, in the event of Her Royal Highness being 
absent from this country, in consequence of the permission of His Majesty; 
or of the Prince Regent, or of her own consent, such residence abroad shall 
in no case be protracted beyond the term approved by His Majesty, or the 
Prince Regent, and consented to by Her Royal Highness. And it shall be 
competent for Her Royal Highness to return to this country before the expi- 
ration of such term, either in consequence of directions for that purpose, in 
writing, from His Majesty, or from the Prince Regent, or at her own 
pleasure." 

The treaty of marriage was signed by the Archbishop of 
Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor, the First Lord of the 
Treasury, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the three Secre- 
taries of State, the President of the Council, and, on the 
part of the husband, by Baron de Just. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 499 

It was on the 21st of February, 1816, that Prince Leopold 
landed at Dover, and the following day proceeded to 
Brighton, where the Queen, with the Princesses Elizabeth 
and Mary, were then on a visit to the Eegent and his 
daughter. The reception of the Prince was most cordial on 
every side; and, on the 5th of the following month, the 
Queen and Princesses returned to Windsor, to make prepa- 
rations for the approaching nuptials, which, however, did 
not take place so soon as was expected, owing to the time 
necessarily occupied in the settlement of preliminaries, and 
the severe illness of Prince Leopold, who was confined at 
Brighton till the middle of April. On the 26th of that 
month, being the birthday of the Princess Mary, the Queen 
gave a grand entertainment at Frogmore, where the Prince 
Begent was received by his royal daughter, the Prince 
Leopold, and several members of the family, attended by a 
numerous party of the nobility, who had been invited to 
dine with the Queen on this occasion. In the evening the 
Begent returned to London, and three days afterwards the 
remainder of the family followed, to be in readiness for the 
nuptials ; Charlotte going to Carlton House; Prince Leopold 
to the apartments of the Duke of Clarence, in St. James 
Palace ; and the Queen, with the Princesses, to Buckingham 
House, where the next day, being the 30th, a drawing room 
was held, according to etiquette, for the purpose of giving 
the young Prince a formal reception at the British Court. 

At length the 2d of May arrived, the day appointed for 
the celebration of the marriage, and, accordingly, the cere- 
mony was performed in the great crimson room, at Carlton 
House, by His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the 
presence of the Queen, the Prince Begent, the Dukes of 
York, Clarence, and Kent, the Princesses Augusta, Sophia, 
Elizabeth, and Mary, the Duchess of York, the Princess 
Sophia of Gloucester, their Serene Highnesses the Duke 
and Mademoiselle D'Orleans, the Duke of Bourbon, the 



500 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

great officers of state, the ambassadors and ministers from 
foreign states j the officers of the household of the Queen, 
of the Prince Regent, and of the younger branches of the 
royal family, assisting at the ceremony. At the conclusion 
of the marriage service the registry of the marriage was 
attested with the usual formalities, after which the Queen, 
the Prince Eegent, the bride and bridegroom, with the rest 
of the royal family, retired to the royal closet. The bride 
and bridegroom soon after left Carlton House for Oatlands, 
the seat of the Duke of York. The Queen, the Prince 
Eegent, and the rest of the royal family passed into the 
great council chamber, where the great officers, nobility, 
foreign ministers, and other persons of distinction present, 
paid their compliments on the occasion. Immediately after 
the conclusion of the marriage the Park and Tower guns 
were fired, and the evening concluded with other public 
demonstrations of joy throughout the metropolis. 

Prince Leopold was naturalized by an Act of Parliament 
passed previous to his marriage 5 and, referring to this 
subject in the speech of the Regent from the throne at the 
prorogation, he announced another royal marriage between 
the Princess Mary and the Duke of Gloucester. Thus, in 
the course of one year, the prospect of the legitimate suc- 
cession of the Brunswick line presented itself under the 
most favorable auspices ; but the manner in which that 
prospect was blighted belongs to a future part of our 
history. 

The marriage of Charlotte had scarcely taken place when 
the public attention was again drawn to the expensive 
habits of the Prince, through whose profusion the civil list 
was constantly in arrear. His rage for the interior decora- 
tion of his palaces appeared to bid defiance to every princi- 
ple of economy or of prudence. If his eyes were dazzled by 
the splendor of his gewgaws; if he could behold his Adonis- 
like form reflected from a hundred mirrors ; if he could lie 

23* 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 501 

entranced in the lap of some meretricious dauie, or brutalize 
himself with his nocturnal potations of the most stimulating 
liquors ; what were to him the distresses of the country, the 
impoverished state of its finances, the depression of its com- 
merce, or the starving condition of the people % Heedless of 
all but the gratification of his own inordinate desires, he 
persisted in a system of extravagance, profuse as it was 
vicious, immoral as it was ruinous. Agents were employed 
abroad to select the most costly pieces of furniture, which, 
after having been paid for and submitted to his royal in- 
spection, were found not to suit his taste, and were restored 
to the cases in which they had been imported, to be con- 
signed as tenants of the lumber room. Like Charles II of 
Spain, he had always some ruling hobby-horse (query, 
hobby- ware?) which always galloped away with him into 
the treasury of the country, from which, returning with the 
requisite load, it was in a short time neglected to make 
room for another still more expensive in its support and 
keeping. De gustibus non est disputandum ; but perhaps no 
prince ever displayed so much frivolity and littleness in the 
choice of some of his hobbies as the Prince of Wales, but 
in the keeping of which he obtained the envied title of a 
magnificent patron of the arts. The zoologists lauded him 
because he knew a parrot from a kangaroo. The architects, 
with Sir Jeffrey Wyatville at their head, praised him because 
he knew the difference between a Chinese pagoda — videlicet, 
at Virginia Water — and a Turkish mosque, invented by Nash 
at Brighton. The antiquarians placed him at the head of 
their learned body, because, when the furor antiquitatis was 
upoD him, they obtained £250 from him for the candlestick 
which Paris used when he lighted Helen to her bed ; and 
Mr. Ustonson, of Meet street, of piscatorial celebrity, bruited 
it about in the vicinity of Temple Bar that George IV was 
the greatest monarch that ever filled the throne of his coun- 
try, because Jais bill amounted every year to several hun- 



502 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

dred pounds for fishing rods,, blood worms, and gentles. Let 
not these things be considered as derogatory to royalty, or 
that they are indicative of a little mind : Napoleon often 
amused himself at a game of marbles, George III with turn- 
ing a needle case or a tobacco stopper $ a Eoyal Louis with 
making locks ; Peter the Great in playing at shipbuilding 5 
Gustavus of Sweden employed his leisure hours in building 
houses with cards ; and a far greater man than any of them, 
Isaac Newton, delighted at playing at push-pin. Sterne says : 
"I quarrel not with the hobby of any man's choosing, unless 
he rides over me, or so bespatters me with mud that my 
friends cannot recognize me f and it is on this account that 
we find fault with the hobbies of the Prince of Wales ; for 
their support he rode roughshod over the people $ he so 
bespattered them with the consequences of his extravagance 
that nothing but the strong arm of military power could 
have kept them true to their allegiance, or saved his throne 
from overthrow and destruction.* 

Nothing could exceed the indignation of the people when 
the civil list came before Parliament in May, 1816, and 
£50,000 were found to have been expended in furniture at 
Brighton, immediately after £534,000 had been voted for 
covering the excess of the civil list, occasioned entirely by 
the reckless extravagance of the Prince Regent. The exer- 
tions of Mr. Tierney to introduce something like economy 
in the diffesent departments were incessant. " He lament- 
ed," he said, "that His Eoyal Highness was surrounded 
by advisers who precipitated him into such profusion. At 
his time of life something different ought to be expected. 
The whole powers of his mind, the whole force of his inge- 
nuity, appear to be employed in discovering some useless 
bauble on which money can be expended, merely from the 
love of spending. He knew, he said, there were those about 
him who encouraged and promoted those wasteful and 

* finish's Memoirs. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 503 

frivolous objects, for the purpose of enriching themselves 
at the sacrifice of their sovereign's character and reputa- 
tion." On another occasion, Mr. Brougham, with the most 
pointed severity, inveighed against the indifference of the 
distress of the country manifested by the Prince's profusion; 
and he predicted that, unless some immediate change took 
place in the expensive habits of the Prince, the same game 
would be played in England as had latterly been exhibited 
in France. 

These reiterated complaints, to which a deaf and sullen 
ear was turned, aggravated the distresses of the people. 
In a season of universal complaint, as then existed, they 
increased the unpopularity of the Prince Eegent, and broke 
out in a short time in open acts of violence against his 
person. 

It was, however, not only the extravagance of the Prince 
that tended at this time to keep the public mind in a state 
of feverish excitation. That plenty and prosperity are not 
always the concomitants of peace too soon became appar- 
ent ; and the excitement under which immense sums were 
lavished away having subsided, the nation, in its sober 
judgment, began to feel and to repent of its extravagance. 

The Prince Eegent had now to mourn a private loss. 
Sheridan, the friend of his youth, the companion of his 
pleasures, his confidential servant, and the abettor of all his 
juvenile profligacies, died on the 5th of July, 1816. 

It is certain that Sheridan's last days were deeply embit- 
tered by the baseness of u friends remembering not ; " and, 
at this trying time, the Prince was much blamed for his 
want of liberality to Sheridan, and that, too, in his last 
moments. A friend of Sheridan's, Mr. Yaughan, a few days 
before his death, assisted him so that he did not actually 
want. 

The innate wit of Sheridan has never been equalled. It 
illumined the British Senate like flashes of lightning, and 



504 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

combined with his satire, withered the most illustrious 
object it might be aimed at. His best speeches are said to 
have been composed in bed. We could pardon late rising 
in some senators of to-day, if this habit wonld conduce to 
investing their oratory with a tithe of the witty Sheridan's 
brilliancy. 

The early parliamentary life of Sheridan was beset with 
difficulties. His father was an actor — a profession which 
society regarded with greater prejudices than now exist. 
Sheridan himself was a dramatic writer, and at one time a 
manager of a theatre. His famous comedy, a The School 
for Scandal," ranks as the most brilliant work in dramatic 
literature of modern times, and enjoyed a season of three 
hundred consecutive nights in London, in 1873-74, nearly 
a century after its original production at Drury Lane. The 
comedy has recently been produced in New York, with all 
the lavish and magnificent accessories of modern art. It is 
to be regretted that Sheridan's mantle could not have 
fallen upon some of his successors in this school of litera- 
ture, whose wit is so lamentably " flat, stale, and unprofit- 
able." The anecdotes, repartees, and witty oon mots of 
Sheridan sparkle like gems throughout English literature 
wherever they are introduced. Our space will only admit 
the following anecdote, which illustrates his well known 
dexterity in avoiding his creditors ; for, like that creation 
of his volatile brain, Charles Surface, he was an incorrigible 
spendthrift, and the frequent inability to meet his obliga- 
tions placed him in the most perplexing straits : 

" A carpenter of Drury Lane, to whom Sheridan owed 
£1,500, laid in wait for him. As the wily manager knew 
he could not evade his creditor, he put on a bold face, and 
greeted the carpenter with expressions of delight, asserting 
he had long wished to see him, to consult him upon some 
acoustic defects in the construction of the theatre, some 
complaints having been made that the voices on the stage 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 505 

were not distinctly audible in the gallery. The carpenter 
began to allude to the payment of his long out-standing 
debt. 'Let us,' said Sheridan, c arrange the projected 
alteration first, and then we will come to the settlement of 
the account. Now, in order that I may convince myself of 
the justness of the complaint, you shall place yourself on 
the stage, and I will go into the gallery, and we can con- 
verse upon the subject of your call equally well in that 
situation as where we now are.' The carpenter was accord- 
ingly placed in the middle of the stage, and Sheridan in a 
very short time appeared in the gallery. l Now, my friend, 
begin,' said Sheridan. "When will it be convenient to 
settle my account V cried the carpenter. i I do not hear 
distinctly,' said Sheridan, ' speak rather louder.' The car- 
penter repeated his question in a louder tone. c That will 
do,' said Sheridan, and left the gallery. The carpenter 
waited for some time in expectation of the manager, but no 
Sheridan appeared ; and, on inquiry, he found that the 
manager had left the theatre by the gallery door, and that 
he had been made the complete dupe of a very clever 
stratagem." 

To the moralist it is a source of regret that a man of 
such extensive learning, impassioned oratory, and elegant 
wit as Sheridan, had not possessed more of those moral 
attributes without which the most splendid attainments do 
not attain complete fruition. 

This master mind of the British Senate and stage was 
now dimmed. His death, which was generally regretted, 
occurred in the sixty -fifth year of his age. The funeral 
was attended by all the principal nobility of the kingdom, 
the royal princes, and first officers of state. 

The Prince now became fond of seclusion. His habits 
were those of self-enjoyment — the real otium cum dignitate 
of royalty with very little of publicity; in fact, his unpopu- 
larity had at this time risen to that height, that, on his re- 



506 THE PR1TATE LIFE OF A KING. , 

turn from opening the Parliament in 1817, he was fired at 
from among the crowd by some traitor with an air gun, 
the bullet of which broke the windows of the carriage. 
This attempt upon his life, and the marked demonstrations 
of discontent and anger with which he was received by the 
populace, produced at last a conviction upon his mind 
that lie was not popular with the people, an idea which 
it was quite impossible to divest him of 5 for, at the very 
height of his unpopularity, there were those sycophants 
around him whose study it was to persuade him that he was 
the very idol of the people .; that the country, under his 
wise and energetic government, had reached the zenith 
of its military fame and its commercial prosi)erity ; and 
that his name would stand recorded in history as the most 
patriotic prince that ever swayed the sceptre of the Brit- 
ish realms. 

The attempt upon his life was immediately communicated 
to both Houses of Parliament, and measures founded on 
the communication were immediately adopted. The Act 
for the security of the King's person, which was passed in 
1795, was extended to the person of the Prince Begent; 
while the various laws in regard to tumultuous meet- 
ings, debating societies, and the suspension of the Habeas 
Corpus Act, were consolidated into a new form, to 
strengthen the hands of the ministers. The House of Lords 
voted a reward of £1,000 for the discovery of the person 
who had fired the bullet, or who had thrown a stone into 
the carriage, but the discovery was never made j and some 
unpleasant rumors were circulated that the whole was a 
vamped-up business to give a sanction to those very strong 
measures which ministers then had in contemplation. 

There is not, perhaps, any official document which con- 
tains a greater number of political falsehoods, or which has 
a more direct tendency to mislead the people in regard to 
the real state of the country than that deceptive compila- 



THE PRIVATE LIPE OF A KING. 507 

tion yclept the King's Speech on the opening of Parliament. 
Submit it to the test of sense, intelligence, or wisdom, and 
the result will be a caput mortuum — analyze it in the 
alembic of truth, the dross will be superabundant — the ore, 
a grain. The speech of the Prince Eegent on opening the 
Session of Parliament of 1817 was looked for with extra- 
ordinary anxiety, as it was expected that some measures 
would be announced tending to relieve the distresses of 
the people, and restore the country to its pristine pros- 
perity. In this expectation, however, the people were 
lamentably disappointed. He alluded to the prevailing 
discontents, and attributed them to a cause directly oppo- 
site to the true one j or, in other words, they were the 
result of circumstances which could neither be foreseen nor 
prevented. He was, however, so far candid as to tell the 
people that he knew so much of the nature of those dis- 
contents, that they did not admit of an immediate remedy ; 
which declaration, if any other person than a Prince 
Eegent had made it, would have been construed into the 
belief that he knew nothing at all about the matter. It 
was, however, necessary to flatter the people, by telling 
them that their patience was highly exemplary, that the 
fortitude with which they endured their trials deserved his 
highest praise, and that he had the fullest reliance on their 
loyalty and patriotism, to continue the display of that for- 
titude until the great wisdom of his ministers, in conjunc- 
tion with his own, should stumble upon some measures to 
put an end to the existing distresses. He then proceeded 
to express his firm persuasion that, although the country 
was evidently in a state of great distress, its prosperity 
was still unimpaired ; that although starvation might exist 
to a certain degree, yet there was plenty in the land, and 
that it would soon manifest itself to the great joy of his 
loyal and dutiful subjects. He concluded by expressing 
his confident expectation that his people would continue, 



508 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

like asses, to bear their burdens patiently ; that they would 
neither bite nor kick at himself, nor at his sage and able 
ministers. 

The Regent returned to Carlton House and his pleasures 
— to Ms women, to his marchioness and bis hobbies j and 
he began his example of economy by devising a magnificent 
plan for altering his stables at Brighton, in which utility 
was a secondary consideration, and the expense no con- 
sideration at all. Alterations were also projected at the 
Carlton House and the Pavilion -, and these alterations 
were again altered, till the artists could only have been 
reconciled to the changes proposed by the royal caprice, 
on account of the immediate source of profit which it 
opened to them. The people, however, regarded the 
speech of the Regent as an aggravation of their distresses. 
Societies were formed in the metropolis, with union 
branches all over the country, for the purpose of exciting 
clamor and sedition. 

Notwithstanding the alarming state of the country, the 
Prince Regent relinquished none of his expensive habits ; 
on the contrary, every day was the parent of some extrava- 
gant whim, which his highly vaunted classical taste had 
devised, or which came recommended to him under the 
.sanction of some female favorite. His rage for alterations 
^as boundless ; and the only thing which he would not 
alter, or which he considered did not require altering, was 
himself. He altered Carlton House, he altered the Pavilion 
at Brighton, he altered his Cottage at Windsor, and, out 
of sheer vanity, he altered his birthday. A hint, a single 
word, would sometimes lead to the dismantling of a room, 
and to the removal of objects which, but a few mouths 
before, had been put up at an enormous expense. On one 
occasion a room of Carlton House had been fitted up in a 
splendid manner, and embellished with superb golden 
eagles, when Sir Edmund Nagle, with less flattery than 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 509 

royalty usually meets with, and in his usual blunt manner, 
reminded the Prince that the eagle was profusely used by 
Napoleon in all his decorations, both military and civil. 
This hint was conclusive $ the eagles were removed, and the 
general style of the room altered. 

The favorite female companion of the Prince Eegent at 
this time was the Marchioness of Hertford j * to her his 
visits were frequent, but to his other intimates his visits 
were like those of angels, c i few and far between." His Courts 
and public parties were very infrequent ; and, although at 
no period of his life was he long fond of what is commonly 
called dropping the King, yet he now began to court what 
La Bruyere thinks the only want of a prince to complete 
his happiness, " the pleasure of private life — a loss that 
nothing can compensate but the fidelity of his select Mends, 
and the applause of rejoicing subjects." The sponging 
sycophants of the Court give but little of the former, while 
the lavish expenditure of the Prince gained for him still less 
of the latter. 

The situation of Charlotte now excited an unusual degree 
of interest in the country. Her approaching accouchement 
was looked forward to with hope and confidence, but not 
with dread. Her health had been uniformly good ; indeed, 
it seemed to bear a resemblance to that preternatural state 
of health from which the great father of physic teaches us 
to apprehend so much. That no apprehension for the result 
rested upon the minds of any of the members of the royal 
family may be collected from the preparations which were, 
at this important period, carried on for the visit of the 
Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Clarence to Bath, and 
for the departure of the Prince Regent on a visit to the 
Marchiones s of Hertford at Eagley Hall. The circumstance, 
however, of the Queen and the Prince Eegent taking their 

* G-reville, speaking of her funeral, says that her only claim to distinction 
was that she had been one of the mistresses of George IT. 



510 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

departure for the country at a crisis fraught with so much 
interest to themselves and the nation at large subjected 
them to some verv acrimonious reflections : and there were 
not wanting those who placed a construction upon the 
absence of the Queen, which went to implicate her charac- 
ter in the most serious manner. In justice, however, to 
Queen Charlotte, it must be stated that she did actually 
offer to postpone her journey to Bath until after the accouche- 
ment, and to give her personal attendance during that try- 
ing period, but that the offer was indignantly rejected by 
Charlotte, who declared that she would not have any of her 
enemies about her. 

It was early in the morning of the 5th of November that 
symptoms of the approaching delivery of Charlotte exhib- 
ited themselves, and a consultation was held between the 
three professional gentlemen in attendance, Sir Eichard 
Croft and Drs. Baillie and Sims, when, from the report of 
the former, it was decided that the labor was evidently 
advancing, though slowly ; but that, from the situation of 
Charlotte, it would be advisable to leave everything to 
nature, and not to employ any artificial means. 

In this stage of this melancholy narrative, it may be 
necessary to premise that Sir Eichard Croft was the acting 
accoucheur, the other two gentlemen never having been 
admitted into the presence of the Princess until the fatal 
symptoms appeared j and that Sir Eichard Croft was assisted 
by Mrs. Griffiths, the officiating nurse, but in the appoint- 
ment of whom to an office of such tremendous responsibil- 
ity, patronage and interest seem to have got the better of 
discretion and sound judgment. Mrs. Griffiths had herself 
never been a mother; and, although she might be considered 
as the female adjunct of Sir Eichard Croft in his obstetrical 
duties, a more experienced person should have been selected 
when such an important event was at issue as the legiti- 
mate succession to the crown. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 511 

At half past five in the morning of the 5th the following 
bulletin was issued from Olaremont : 

"The labor of Her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte has within the 
last three or four hours considerably advanced, and will, it is hoped, within 
a few hours, be happily terminated." 

But at a quarter past nine the hope thus encouraged was 
destroyed by the following annunciation : 

"At nine o'clock this evening, November 5, Her Royal Highneso the 
Princess Charlotte was safely delivered of a stillborn child, and Her Royal 
Highness is going on favorably." 

On the report that Charlotte was doing well Prince Leopold 
had retired to rest in the adjoining chamber, but he was 
among the few who attended the summons on the first indi- 
cation of indisposition. About eleven o'clock the Princess 
appeared inclined to sleep ; this might, perhaps, have been 
the effect of mere exhaustion, but, as it was unattended by 
any of the usual characters of illness, it was construed into 
a favorable circumstance, and the great officers of state 
immediately took their departure. 

The first alarming symptoms occurred about twelve 
o'clock, when the patient felt a difficulty in swallowing 
some gruel, at the same time complaining of being chilly, 
and of a pain in her chest. Her quiet left her, she became 
restless and uneasy, and the medical attendants felt 
alarmed. Drs. Baillie and Sims immediately joined Sir 
Bichard Croft, and every remedy which their united skill 
could devise was sedulously applied. From that time the 
fatal issue advanced rapidly ; a slight difficulty in swallow- 
ing, which soon subsided, in addition to the sickness, was 
all that had previously occurred ; but from this time, pain 
in the chest, great difficulty in respiration, and extreme 
restlessness increased, until the fears of the physicians 
could be no longer dissembled. Expresses were immedi- 
ately sent off to the Cabinet ministers, conveying their 
doubts with respect to the event. 



512 THE PRIVATE LIFE OP A KINO. 

Some small supplies of nourishment were now adminis- 
tered to her, but they appeared to create only a nausea. 
She vomited, but nothing was ejected except a little cam- 
phor julep which she had taken ; and at this moment her 
pulse was firm, steady, and under a hundred. She again 
became composed. 

About five minutes before her death Charlotte said to 
her medical attendants, " Is there any danger f J They 
replied that they requested her to compose herself. Char- 
lotte replied with great composure, " I understand the 
meaning of that answer f and it is stated she added that 
she had one request to make, and begged that it might be 
put in writing. It was that she hoped the customary 
etiquette would be dispensed with at some future day, and 
that her husband, when his awful time should arrive, might 
be laid by her side. 

The utterance of this request seemed partially to have 
relieved her departing spirit. She now appeared as if her 
interest in the concerns of this world were at an end, and a 
solemn, heart-rending silence followed. For some moments 
the throbbings of the hearts of the agitated attendants 
might almost have been heard. The vital spark flashed 
for. a moment brightly, but the power of articulation was 
gone. The dimness of death was creeping fast upon her 
sight j still she moved not her eyes from the face of her 
beloved husband, who stood in speechless agony over her. 
He hung upon that countenance which had been his delight 
in health, in strength, and joy 5 and it now beamed con- 
solation and support on the awful verge of a purer life. 

In her last agonies — in that awful moment when the 
scenes of this earth and all their grandeur were to close 
upon her forever — scenes in which she had experienced 
the height of terrestrial bliss ; — Charlotte grasped the hand 
of him who had ever been the object of that bliss. It was 
not the warm grasp of life — it was the convulsive one of 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 513 

death. Her head fell on her bosom, and, breathing a gen- 
tle sigh, she expired. 

When this deplorable event took place the Eegent had 
been for a week or ten days at the seat of Lord Hertford, 
in Suffolk j but having received intelligence that the illness 
of Charlotte had commenced, he hastened to town on his 
way to Glaremont. During his journey he stopped two 
messengers with despatches ; these, it is said, announced 
only the slow progress of the labor, and the apparent 
absence of danger ; a third with the account of the still- 
born child passed him in the night; from which circum- 
stance it was not until after his arrival in town he became 
acquainted with the full extent of his irreparable loss. He 
reached Carlton House about four in the morning, when 
the Duke of York and Lord Bathurst met him as the offi- 
cial bearers of the melancholy intelligence. 

The lamentable news was despatched to Caroline, who 
was then in Italy. The sudden shock, with a retrospect of 
the cruel manner in which she had been separated from 
her only daughter, occasioned much bitter suffering. As 
a tribute of affection she raised a cenotaph to her memory 
in the garden of Pesaro. Her melancholy increased even 
amidst the splendid charms of Italian scenery j clear skies 
and golden sunsets, and the picturesque haunts of wood 
and grove, and rocky shore could afford no resting place 
for her sorrow ; and from this period, absence strengthened 
affection and her desire to visit England, and to wail over 
the grave of her child became redoubled. Nature would 
have it so, for the child became endeared to the mother 
by the trials and long suffering which she had endured 
on her account, and the fondness which the young Prin- 
cess had shown for her exiled parent, even amidst the 
scorns and frowns of her royal father. The bereaved mother 

refused to be comforted 5 writing to -, in England, she 

says : " England I now sigh to visit. Over the tomb of 



514 THE PRIVATE LIFE OE A KING. 



my dear Charlotte I long to weep — again and again to 
weep." Such was the plamtiveness of her lament. 

The effect which the death of Charlotte had upon the 
royal family was of the most poignant kind. When the 
awful intelligence was disclosed to her grandmother she 
covered her face in anguish and retired to her private 
apartments. The Prince Eegent was so deeply affected by 
the melancholy tidings that it became necessary to bleed 
him twice. Prince Leopold was invited to Carlton House 
that he might be spared the painful sight of the prepara- 
tions of the funeral, but he refused to be separated from 
the object which had been so inexpressibly dear to him in 
life. - ' 

The 19th of November was the day fixed upon for the 
funeral of Charlotte, and truly may it be said to have been 
a day of prayer and lamentation, not only throughout 
the vast metropolis, but throughout the whole realm. 

It is impossible to have witnessed a more striking con- 
trast than that which presented itself in the town of 
Windsor, at the funeral of the Princess Charlotte and that 
of George IY, her father. The former was a display of the 
deepest national sorrow; the tear stood glistening in 
almost every eye, and a smile would have been an insult 
upon the memory of the deceased. The funeral of George 
IY was a positive jubilee. Crowds hastened to witness the 
pageantry of the spectacle; but not on a single counte- 
nance was observed an expression of grief. The Park was 
thronged with joyous parties, and shouts of revelry and 
mirth were interrupted only by the< firing of the minute 
gun, or the rolling of the carriages conveying the mourners 
to the ceremony. Under one tree was heard the glee of 
"When Arthur first at Court began," and under another 
" A inerry king, and a merry king, and a right merry king 
was he;" while in the streets of the town, in the imme- 
diate vicinity of the Castle, where lay in all the magni- 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 515 

ficence of royalty, and all the littleness and insignificance 
of humanity, the putrifying remains of England's sovereign 
defunct, a kind of fair was held, where the Life and Portrait 
of the late King, of blessed memory, were to be had for 
one penny ; and the amours of the Marchioness of Conyng- 
ham, as a necessary appendix, for a penny also. It was 
intended to be a " lioly day? but it was a genuine bona fide 
" Jioliday ; " and the staunch sticklers for royalty must have 
retired from the contemplation of the scene with a very 
contemptible idea of English loyalty.* 

Whoever beheld the crowd which filled the churches on 
the day of the funeral of Charlotte, the deep attention with 
which they hung upon the Divine Word, the devout fer- 
vency of their prayers, and the tears with which tliey 
embalmed the memory of the deceased Princess, must have 
been convinced that sincere and ardent religion had 
resumed its empire over their hearts. By an impulse of 
feeling, as spontaneous as it was universal, all business 
was suspended throughout the metropolis. Every shop 
was shut as during the solemnity of the Sabbath ; the 
shutters jof most private houses were also closed ; and while 
the deep tolling of bells sounded mournfully above, and the 
afflicted countenances and the black vestments of woe 
passed silently along, funeral processions seemed to move 
in every street, and the whole land to weep in desolation. 

Turning from the painful recollection of the severe loss 
which the country sustained in the death of Charlotte to 
the consideration of the public interests affected by the sad 
event, the first, the weightiest in political importance, and 
that, indeed, at the time which seemed to absorb and swal- 
low up all others, was the succession to the throne. In a 
monarchy the circumstance is of paramount importance ; 
and the situation in which the country is placed, at the 
period when we are now writing, exhibits in a very strong 

* Iluiah. 



516 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINS. 

light the serious consequences which have resulted from 
the death of Charlotte and her infant. By her death the 
Duke of York became heir presumptive to the crown, from 
whom no issue was expected ; and next in the succession was 
the Duke of Clarence, at that time unmarried. A very in- 
teresting and curious calculation was made at this time, by 
which it was reckoned that, calculating the duration of life 
of the several branches of the royal family in direct suc- 
cession to the crown, there would be nine reigns in the next 
twenty-one years, and two of them female ones. The Duke 
of York having died previously to the reigning monarch, 
left the Duke of Clarence heir presumptive to the crown, to 
which he actually succeeded on the demise of George IV. 
The Duke of Clarence having married in 1818, and having 
no issue, left the succession open to the surviving daughter 
of the Duke of Kent, who, in the event of William IV 
dying without issue, would succeed to the throne. By this 
circumstance the crown of Hanover becomes alienated from 
that of Britain, unless a matrimonial union can be effected 
between the young heiress presumptive to the crown of 
England and Prince George of Cumberland, who will suc- 
ceed to the crown of Hanover at the decease of his father. 
We have, in a former part of this work, briefly alluded to 
the almost incestuous character which would be attached 
to this marriage ; but we doubt not that state policy will 
overcome every scruple, and the great advantages attend- 
ant upon royal legitimacy be held up as an ample equiva- 
lent for an infraction of any of th& canonical laws relating 
to marriage. 

Among the many political .questions which were agita- 
ted upon the demise of Charlotte, one of the most import- 
ant was the incompatibility pf the Duke of York, as next 
in succession to the crown, to hold his situation as Com- 
mander-in-Chief > and it was assumed, as a thing definitely 
settled, that the resignation of His Eoyal Highness of the 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 517 

high office which he held would immediately follow. The 
correspondence of George III, the Duke of York, and Mr. 
Addington with the Prince, in 1803, was referred to, to show 
that the command was refused to His Eoyal Highness on 
constitutional grounds ; and, therefore, as a command of a 
brigade or a regiment on active service was refused the 
Prince of Wales, as standing next in succession to the 
crown, how much greater was the breach of the constitution 
in allowing the successor to the crown to hold the responsi- 
ble office of Commander-in-Chief ? The question was, how- 
ever, got rid of by a quibble ; for it was asked : " Is the 
Duke of York really next in succession to the crown V 7 and 
they who argued that he was were told that, to establish 
that point, they must forget that there was such a person 
in existence as the Prince of Wales. The crown continued 
to belong to the King ; and consequently, the Prince, and 
not the Duke of York, was next in succession to it. To 
make good the position, therefore, of the Dnke of York 
standing in that situation, it was necessary to remove 
either the King or the Prince Eegent $ and as that could 
not be effected by the alarmist for this attack on the con- 
stitution7~the Duke was allowed to maintain his office, and 
it must be admitted that his holding it was neither against 
the practice nor the principle of the constitution. 

We are now called upon to notice some circumstances 
connected with the death of Charlotte which excited the 
most intense curiosity at the time, and to which, even at the 
present day, some suspicion is attached. 

That the Queen and Charlotte were not on a friendly 
footing with each other was too notorious to be concealed, 
nor was it attempted to be kept secret. Charlotte regarded 
the Queen as one of the most inveterate enemies of her 
mother ; and she was aware of some acts which the Queen 
had committed for the purpose of arriving at some informa- 
tion, which were by no means creditable to her ; but that 



518 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

the Queen could for a moment sanction or connive at any 
diabolical plan for the removal of Charlotte from this world 
must be received with the utmost indignation and horror. 
Nevertheless, there were some circumstances attending the 
management of Charlotte, as well as in the choice of her 
immediate attendants, which met with the reprobation of 
the public 5 and we can with truth affirm that, in our 
repeated visits to Esher, for the purpose of obtaining infor- 
mation, that there was scarcely an inhabitant of the town 
who did not shake the head, with all the expression of sus- 
picion, whenever her death was mentioned. The suspicion 
was, however, only vented in a low murmur ; but still dis- 
trust sat upon many a countenance, and a circumstance 
which took place shortly after the Princess' decease was 
well calculated to fan that suspicion into a blaze, careless 
of what might be consumed by its fire. Calumny had been 
long busy with the names of Sir Eichard Croft and Mrs. 
Griffiths ; and some dark insinuations were thrown out in 
regard to the conduct of the former, which went to prove 
that he was a very improper person to be intrusted with so 
responsible an office as accoucheur to Charlotte. The afflict- 
ing circumstances of her death had excited the particular 
attention of the members of the medical profession, and 
. especially of those who j>eculiarly devote themselves to the 
obstetrical department. By many of them the grossest 
errors were discovered in the management during the period 
of her labor; and so prevalent was the opinion that she had 
not been properly treated, that many called loudly upon 
Parliament to institute an immediate inquiry into the con- 
duct of her medical attendants ; for, although the Prince 
Eegent and Prince Leopold had directed letters to be writ- 
ten to Sir Eichard Croft, expressive of their acknowledg- 
ments of the zealous care and indefatigable attention mani- 
fested by him towards their deceased relative, yet such let- 
ters were regarded as mere matters of form, and also that 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 519 

they had been written before any of the alarming suspicions 
had been raised or promulgated. The consequence, how- 
ever, of these rumors — many of which, it must be confessed, 
were circulated with the most malicious motives — were to Sir 
Eichard Croft of the most fatal nature. The story of his 
having substituted a male child for a female one, in one of 
the most noble and opulent families in the kingdom, was 
revived ; and the machinations of the enemies of Sir Eichard 
so far succeeded that letters were daily received by him from 
some of the most eminent families, declining a continuation 
of his professional services. These arrows, shot by premedi- 
tated malice, pierced into a spirit i>cculiarly sensitive, and 
ultimately led to the fatal catastrophe. An excess of deli- 
cate feeling, a susceptibility to painful regret, an extreme 
anxiety in respect to the discharge of professional duty; 
when such sentiments as these grow too painful for the 
wounded spirit to bear, and rise into madness, it is difficult 
to conceive a case appealing more strongly to our sympathy 
and sorrow. 

Agitated as the public mind was in regard to the fate of 
Charlotte, it required no stimulus to increase the excitation, 
much less one of that astounding nature which, like some 
destructive wild fire, circulated through every part of 
Britain and the continent, when the suicide of Sir Eichard 
Croft was made public. The dreadful act was immediately 
construed as arising from the compunctions of a guilty con- 
science ; the public beheld in it a confirmation of their sus- 
picious, and loud and vehement was the expression of their 
indignation. In addition to which, some very strange re- 
ports were circulated respecting Mrs. Griffiths ; and it must 
be admitted that there is still a mystery hanging over the 
fate of that female after the decease of Charlotte, which is 
sufficient to encourage suspicions of the most alarming 
kind. 

It is a natural and universal conclusion that, where there 



520 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINGL 

is secrecy or mystery, there is generally an accompaniment 
of guilt ; and, with the predisposition which existed in the 
public mind to attach, not simply professional ignorance, 
but positive criminality, to the persons officiating about 
Charlotte, it would have been a very politic measure, in 
those who had it in their power to allay the ferment of the 
public mind, to have acceded to the wishes of the people, 
and to have given the utmost publicity to every particular 
connected with the conduct of the officiating attendants of 
Charlotte. On the contrary, the most guarded secrecy was 
imposed upon them. The lips appeared to be almost 
magically closed whenever a question was asked which had 
any reference to the conduct which was pursued with 
Charlotte ; and when it was disclosed on the inquest which 
sat upon Sir Richard Croft that his derangement arose 
from the unfortunate event at Claremont, it was said that 
the act of suicide was not warranted by that event. A pro- 
fessional man might deplore the ill success and the fatal 
consequences of any act of his professional skill, but, if the 
consciousness accompanied him that he had in every re- 
spect fulfilled his duty to the best of his ability, he had 
ample consolation within himself to protect him from de- 
spondency or madness. Life or death was in other hands 
than his ; and, if the latter were ordained by Heaven, it 
was not in human power nor skill to prevent it ; and, 
although he might not be able to look upon the past with- 
out feelings of the bitterest sorrow, yet he had received the 
most flattering acknowledgments from the father and the 
husband for his services ; and, therefore, with these con- 
solatory circumstances operating upon his mind, the public 
looked for the cause of his insanity to other causes than 
the mere death of his illustrious patient. 

There was a cause which made barrenness a reproach 
with the women of Israel. There was hope to inspire and 
animate the fruitful ; and each of the virgins of Judah 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 521 

saw herself, in prospect, the blessed mother of the Messiah. 
The lamented death of Charlotte, and the consequent ex- 
tinction of the nation's hope of a direct issue in the right 
line, appears to have revived this kind of patriarchal feel- 
ing in the bosoms of the royal family of Great Britain. The 
Dukes of Clarence, Kent, and Cambridge were all of them 
at the decease of Charlotte unmarried. It was the reluct- 
ance of the Prince to enter the marriage state that induced 
the Duke of York to marry. The want of issue from this 
union, and the advance of a sum of money to pay his 
debts, prevailed upon the Prince to alter his determination. 
The decease of his only child effected a considerable change 
in the breasts of all the royal family, as far as a matri- 
monial union was concerned, and royal marriages became 
alarmingly prevalent. To the German Courts the British 
princes repaired, viewed the marriageable stock on hand, 
had them, as the Tenth would say, trotted out, and in a 
few months the delightful information was conveyed to 
England that suitable spouses had been found for the 
Dukes of Clarence, Kent, and Cambridge. The next grand 
question was, how these spouses were to be kept, and ac- 
cordingly Parliament was applied to for an augmentation 
of the income of the royal dukes, with one year's income 
as a bonus wherewith to commence the married state. In 
the case of the Duke of Cumberland, the Prince Eegent 
had received a very severe rebuff, and he was doomed to 
experience it again on the present occasion. The pliancy 
of Parliament to the will of the sovereign, in matters of a 
personal nature, had almost become proverbial 5 but the 
Prince Eegent was astonished to find that, in some in- 
stances respecting himself, a truly asinine sturdiness was 
exhibited, and a strong mulish disposition not to move in 
the precise track which he had laid down for them. 
The subject of the provision for the royal dukes on their 
marriages came on to be discussed in the House of Com- 



522 THE PRIVATE LIFE OP A KING. 

moiis on the 15th of April/ 1818, when it was proposed 
by Lord Castlereagh that the income of the Duke of 
Clarence should be raised to £22,000 a year, and that of 
the Dukes of Kent, Cumberland, and Cambridge to 
£12,000 a year. 

This arrangement was expressed to be the decided will 
of the Prince Eegent, but it appeared not to have been the 
decided will of his faithful Commons, for a very indignant 
feeling was expressed by many of the members on the 
occasion, and a firm and successful opposition was made 
to this very modest inroad upon the public purse. The 
ministers of the crown pronounced the usual eulogium on 
the loyalty of the people, and their inviolable attachment 
to the reigning family. The marriages of the royal dukes 
had been consummated under the most auspicious circum- 
stances, and the country had before it the highly pleasing 
prospect of a legitimate succession to the throne being con- 
firmed. The representatives of the people listened with 
great attention to the sapient remarks of the haughty 
minister ; they perfectly coincided with him that the Eng- 
lish were a loyal people, and that they were in reality 
attached to the reigning family collectively, but not ex- 
actly individually ; they did not dispute the delightful 
prospect of the legitimate succession being confirmed, but 
they ventured to express an opinion that they might pay 
too dearly for that prospect, and, therefore, it was again 
proposed that the grant to the Duke of Clarence should 
not exeeed £10,000, and £6,000 a year to the three junior 
dukes. On a division, however, of 193 to 184, the augmen- 
tation of the Duke of Clarence was put on a level with that 
of his brothers, which latter was carried by a very small 
majority, while the allowance to the Duke of Cumberland 
was negatived by a majority of 143 to 136. 

This spirited resistance of the Commons of England 
occasioned much chagrin to the Prince Eegent. He ex- 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 523 

pected to have made his royal brothers of Clarence, Kent, 
and Cambridge the stalking horses by which his royal 
brother of Cumberland was to be let down gently into an 
augmentation of £6,000 per annum. The shepherds of the 
people took three of the royal flock under their protection, 
but there was something so tainted and rotten about the 
other that they rejected him altogether. In the opinion of 
the Prince Regent, it was the effect of the most illiberal 
prejudice; and that the English people, so far from treating 
his royal brother with contempt and indignation, ought to 
have bestowed upon him their entire support and appro- 
bation for bis magnanimous and courageous conduct when 
the assassin Sellis attempted his life. 

We have no inclination to comment upon this tragedy, 
the most hideous in its details, staining the annals of the 
nation. 

While these proceedings were going on, the side winds 
of scandal brought many malignant stories to the ear of 
the Prince Regent respecting the habits of Caroline on the 
continent. Reports occasionally found their way into the 
public prints unfavorable to her reputation, and before the 
close of the year 1817 a commission was formally ap- 
pointed to examine -into the reports which had been fur- 
nished by a Baron d'Ompteda, charged with the mean and 
dishonorable office of being a spy upon her movements. 
The substance of these accusations was communicated, to 
her by some of her friends in England, and several of her 
letters are extant, in which she predicted the attempts 
which might be made by means of discharged servants, 
dishonest couriers, or bribed and even pensioned indi- 
viduals to invent and establish charges which might 
affect her happiness, her lienor, and her future prospects. 
Little, however, did she imagine that any person could be 
found so unprincipled as to invent some of the charges to 
which they afterwards deposed. 



524 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

Rastelli, afterwards a witness, was employed as courier 
and recruiting sergeant for witnesses, and to him was 
delegated the all powerful argument of a long purse. 
Demont, while in the hands of this commission, car- 
ried on a correspondence with her sister, who was 
still in the Queen's service, through the medium of 
Baron d'Ompteda, for the purpose of obtaining infor- 
mation from her servants, and Omati was paid by some 
one for stealing papers for the use of the commission 
from his master, who was the Princess 7 professional agent 
at Milan. 

The various parts which were taken, by the principals in 
the commission were never distinctly investigated, but the 
acts of all the inferior agents were subsequently developed 
in the House of Lords, forming altogether a mass of perjury 
and villany unheard of before in any Court of British judi- 
cature. The unconstitutional, illegal, and improper char- 
acter of such a commission, it is impossible to express in 
terms too forcible, or indeed sufficiently to deprecate and 
loathe. Partaking of the nature of the Court of Star 
Chamber and all the horrors of the Inquisition. It was 
first unhappily introduced in the nineteenth century by the 
Government of a nation distinguished for fertility of soil, 
for civilization, trade and manufactures, for mental and 
religious elevation, and for all that can give real dignity to 
the human mind. 

The whole of the year 1818 was distinguished by the ex- 
ertions of the Milan Commission. The Princess was sur- 
rounded by enemies secret or avowed, and it was only at 
the desire of Mr. Brougham and some other friends that 
she was induced to remain on the continent. It was to her 
a year of anxiety and trouble, but she lived in retirement 
and endeavored to fortify her mind against the troubles 
which she' apprehended she would have to surmount on the 
death of George III. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 525 

On returning to the events which took place in the year 
1818, the most memorable was the death of the Queen, 
mother of George IV. The nature of the disorder under 
which she labored was so unequivocally marked as to 
admit of neither doubt nor hope. Her sufferings were very 
acute ; and, on the 17th of November, the following bulle- 
tin appeared : 

" The Queen's state last night was of great and imminent danger. Her 
Majesty continues very ill this morning." 

The groom had not left the palace with the bulletin more 
than three quarters of an hour when Her Majesty became 
so much worse that a second messenger was despatched 
to Carlton House to request the immediate attendance of 
the Prince Eegent. A mortification, which had taken 
place in Her Majesty's right heel, now threatened imme- 
diate dissolution. Her respiration was laboriously per- 
formed, and the tension in the side was painful to suffoca- 
tion. On the arrival of the Prince Eegent and the Duke of 
York, Sir H. Halford had an audience in the drawing 
room — Augusta and the Duchess of Gloucester were also 
present. When Sir Henry announced that there was no 
longer any hope of their august parent surviving the par- 
oxysm, they immediately hastened to attend her last 
moments. For more than half an hour they remained sur- 
rounding the bed in a state of anxious suspense, the Queen 
lying before them totally insensible ; and she had for some 
time breathed her last before the Princess absorbed in 
grief had ceased supporting her. Sir Henry Halford at 
length announced that all was over, and they were led 
from the chamber by their royal brothers. The Queen 
died at twenty minutes past one o'clock, November 17th, 
1818, and was buried at Windsor on the 2d of December. 
The Eegent and the Duke of York met the procession at 
Frogmore. The Prince was the chief mourner j his fine 



526 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

commanding figure and majestic carriage appeared most 
strikingly in the solemn scene. His "inky cloak" was long 
and of u a great amplitude of folds." On his left breast 
was a star of brilliants, shining most resplendently among 
his sables, above which he wore four splendid collars of 
knighthood. Thus did his love of show and splendor 
accompany him even to the grave of his mother. He ap- 
peared, however, to be deeply affected. It is also said 
that he wept and sobbed aloud. And it must be confessed 
that as a mother, and especially to him, she deserved the 
tribute of most poignant grief. Lord Liverpool, who car' 
ried the sword of state before him, is reported to have ob 
served that the Prince Regent's tears bedimmed the splen 
did jewellery of the collars of knighthood which hung in 
successive rows over his black cloak. His lordship was* 
not given much to hyperbole, but we denounce him guilty 
of it in the presence instance. What an affecting episode 
must this have been in this scene of royal woe — his sorrow 
put out the golden glister of regal pomp ! 

The maternal relations of Queen Charlotte were charac- 
terized by strong partiality. The Prince of Wales was her 
idol j his vices she had seemed to regard as mere juvenile 
foibles. The manner in which she espoused his cause 
against Caroline probably alienated from her the good 
opinion of the English people more than any other act of 
her life. After her death the Duke of York was appointed 
by Government to take charge of the King's person, and 
he received for this — which any other son but a royal one 
would have considered his duty to have rendered as a filial 
obligation without remuneration — $50,000 per annum. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 52' 



(Stotrtw £xttmx. 



At the beginning of the year 1819 the condition of pub- 
lic affairs in England was not unlike the crisis which the 
United States passed through in 1873-74. The disbanding 
of the militia had sent back to their homes thousands of 
unemployed men. The product of the manufacturer lay 
undemanded in his storehouse. The extensive channels into 
which the stream of commerce had been carried under the 
force-pump of an artificial credit remained dry and stagnant 
when that impulse was withdrawn. A return to cash pay- 
ments by the Bank of England was loudly called for. But 
the great pressure weighed most heavily upon the opera- 
tive classes. The British people became dissatisfied with 
their rulers $ riots occurred. That in Manchester wore all 
the features of a civil war $ it was the strong arm of mil- 
itary power against the voice of a distressed and suffering 
people. Blood was shed, Englishman against Englishman, 
the yeomanry of the country fleshed their maiden swords 
in the bodies of their compatriots $ the times were full of 
danger, but either an alarm beyond the importance of its 
cause existed, or the ministry were acquainted with mat- 
ters connected with these risings unknown to the people 
of the realm. 

In all these tumults the Eegent became one of the chief 
subjects of reproach 5 but the transactions to which they 
led belong more properly to the public annals of the reign 
than to the private memoirs of the individual. 

The last year of the Regency ended as it began — with 
discontent and gloomy anticipations. 



52S THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

It was truly said by the author of the "Mght Thoughts:" 

"When sorrows come, they come not single spies, 
But in battalions ;" 

and the Priuce Eegent of England now presented a living 
example of the truth of the remark. The hand of affliction 
appeared to press sorely upon him. He had seen his only 
child laid in her tomb, and, before a year had elapsed, he 
was called upon to follow his mother to the same long rest- 
ing place, where royal greatness vanishes, and pomp and 
pageantry become a mockery. From the year 1817 death 
appeared to run riot in the palaces, one victim' falling after 
another, as if its aim were to extinguish royalty altogether, 
to render their abodes desolate, and to break asunder every 
tie of fraternity which bound the family together. The 
Prince Eegent had lost his mother and his child, and he 
was now doomed to sustain the loss of a brother. The 
Duke of Kent, the fourth son of the King, died on the iJ3d 
of January, 1820, in the fifty-third year of his age, of an 
inflammation of the lungs, from neglected cold, communi- 
cated by wet feet. He left behind a widow, the sister of 
Prince Leopold, and a daughter, then only eight months 
old, the present Queen Victoria. The striking similarity of 
fate between the brother and sister, in their connection with 
the royal family of England, was not unnoticed. The Duke 
of Kent was not a politician ; he seldom appeared beyond 
the shade of private life, or presiding at the anniversaries 
of some of the great charitable institutions, in some of 
which he appeared to take particular interest. 

Almost the last act of the Duke of Kent was the perusal 
of a letter from the Prince Eegent, to whom the Duke had 
given some offence, for the credit which he gave to the 
claims of a certain lady, the soi-disant Princess Olive of 
Cumberland, to be admitted as one of the legitimates into 
the royal circle. The Prince Eegent took alarm at this 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 529 

introduction of a new member of the royal family, and lie 
castigated his royal brother very severely for even giving 
the semblance of his sanction to so spurious a claim. The 
death of the Duke following almost immediately put an end 
to the dispute, and also to the introduction of Mrs. Serres 
to the distinguished houor of being admitted a member of 
the royal family. 

The fruits of the royal marriages, contracted on the 
decease of the Princess Charlotte, began to display them- 
selves in the year 1820, a nephew and a niece being born to 
the Prince Regent by the Duchesses of Kent and Cumber- 
land — the latter, now Victoria, the present virtuous Queen, 
and whose beautiful character, in contrast with that of 
George IV, renders his still blacker. The hopes of the 
advocates for the legitimate succession of the House of 
Brunswick began to revive, and England looked forward 
for a continuance of those inestimable blessings which the 
country has enjoyed under the gracious rule of so glorious 
a family. A blessing was conferred upon the nation by the 
appointment of Prince G-eorge of Cumberland, a boy ten 
years of age, to the rank of lieutenant-general ! A lieuten- 
ant general, whose boyish strength will scarcely enable him 
to bear the weight of his uniform and his sabre, carries us 
back to the good old times of England, when, for the 
purpose of defraying the expenses of her education, a Miss 
Wade was ojutheadmiralty books as a midshipman / The 
latter case appears rather farcical, but not more so than 
this gallant, weather-beaten lieutenant-general kissing hands 
on his promotion — and all this in the enlightened era of 
1831. Oh, jam satis! 

The monarch who held out his hand to be kissed by such 
a warrior must have been warmed with a blaze of enthusi- 
asm and pride when he came to reflect that his throne was 
defended by such a potent arm ; and the people, who might 
be called upon to fight for the maintenance of that throne, 



530 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

might divest themselves of all fear for the issue of the con- 
test, when led on by such an experienced general. It is 
impossible to treat a subject of this nature without ridicule. 

The patriarch of the Georges expired on the 29th of 
January, 1820. 

The character of the old King, George III, is told in 
American school-books, and in our Declaration of Indepen- 
dence he is termed a tyrant. The following is a fair char- 
acter given of him by an English author : * 

This patriarch and father of kings may, in some particu- 
lars, be considered as among the best men of his time and 
country ; his long life and good bodily health were the in- 
dubitable proofs of a sound constitution, preserved and 
maintained by temperance. He rose early, used vigorous 
exercise, despised feasting, and knew no long fasts. He 
was fond of farming, attached to hunting, and devoted to 
his family. Splendor had no charms for him ; but it is to 
be feared that he loved money for its own sake. In morals 
he was strict, but not more so in precept than in practice. 
His mind was not of the highest order, nor had it been 
highly cultivated ; but his understanding was sound, and it 
had been exercised more in the study of men than in books. 
His opinions were in some degreee fettered by antiquated 
prejudices, the consequences of a restricted and confined 
system of education. He was firm to obstinacy, in purpose 
attached, and unwavering in friendship, uncompromising 
and direct towards those whom he did not love. The honor 
and happiness of his peopls were ever in his view, but the 
light in which he saw those objects was often strange and 
new, in some instances approaching the eccentric ; and the 
means which he employed to gain his end were not always 
the most reasonable, nor likely to insure success. No man 
was more jealous of his prerogative. In the war of opinion 
which agitated Europe during the greater part of his long 

* Huish. London, 1831. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 531 

reign, George III stood nearly alone ; but he maintained 
his ground, and his principles triumphed in the end. Men 
of various opinions took the lead in his councils, but it was 
the opinion of the king that prevailed. Whether glory or 
disaster crowned his efforts, he bore all with temperance ; 
indeed, in some cases, his disasters appeared to invigorate 
him to fresh exertions, and to an obstinate perseverance in 
a line of conduct from which discomfiture was almost cer- 
tain. In his administration of public affairs there was 
more of the man than the monarch in him. George III was 
a patron of the arts, but a niggard in his patronage. He 
was fond of painting, but no critic in the art. Portraits he 
understood and relished, and he was liberal of his praise 
and encouragement of rising talent. He had little taste for 
sculpture, and on the whole his genius was more mechan- 
ical than scientific. In music he loved the simple and the 
devotional, but he could not endure the elaborate nor the in- 
tricate ; for this reason the Italian Opera was seldom honored 
with his presence $ but he enjoyed a play, and it was a spe- 
cies of enjoyment that he very frequently partook of. His 
admiration of mechanics condescended to be amused with a 
pantomimic trick, and in a theatre he preferred laughter 
to tears. He delighted in all sorts of drolleries, and the 
exquisite manner in which he seemed to enjoy the swallow- 
ing of a carrot by Follett, the clown, was the subject of a 
most laughable caricature. He could be jocose sometimes 
even at the head of his levees, as was the case when Colonel 
Macleod of Oolbecks was introduced, attired in the High- 
land dress ; and bowing exceedingly low, the kilt was not 
sufficiently long to prevent a certain part of the gallant 
Highlandman's form being displayed — on which his Majesty 
exclaimed, " Keep the ladies in front, keep the ladies in 
front !" In his general conduct, George III was affable, 
kind, and familiar to all beneath him ; and what he said of 
his horse, he might have applied with equal truth to his most 



532 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

confidential servant : " I know his worth, and I treat him 
accordingly." The King was always resolute and courage- 
ous — when assassination levelled the knife or aimed the pistol 
at his breast, or when faction threatened the destruction of 
his political existence." 

George III boasted he was the last man in his dominions 
to subscribe to the peace with America ; he left his people a 
debt of one hundred and thirty million pounds as the price 
of his obstinacy, and an abortive attempt to impose on a 
brave people taxation without representation.* 

The last attack of his mental malady is traceable to his 
parting interview with the Princess Amelia, at which she 
presented him with a ring. There was an interesting mys- 
tery about this scene which it would not be decent to re- 
move. It need only be remarked that not one of the guesses 
of the moment was at all felicitous. In his later years blind- 
ness was added to his mental deprivation, and he was deaf, 
yet in his darkness and solitude he talked to himself of past 
events and characters, remembered with melancholy accu- 
racy. He often conversed with his attendants, but never 
seemed to forget that he was a king. 

His body was committed to the family vault in St. 
George's Chapel at Windsor, on the 16th of February, 
1820. 

The usual ceremonies of proclamation and salutation an- 
nounced the accession of George IY, and another important 
era commences. 

The death of George III brought only a change of title 
to his successor. All the essential attributes of royalty 
were his already, and had been his for years before. The 
first public act of the new King was to summons a privy 
council, at which the emblems of office were surrendered by 
the public servants of the crown, to whom, it is unneces- 
sary to add, they were immediately restored. The Cabinet 

* Suppressed edition. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 533 

and the ministry remained as before. The Earl of Harrowby 
was President of the Council, and Lord Eldon High Chan- 
cellor. The Earl of Liverpool was First Lord of the 
Treasury, and Viscount Castlereagh Secretary of State for 
the Home Department. These names, with those of Can- 
ning, Sidmouth, Vansittart, etc., involved themselves in the 
history of both reigns. The national debt, on the accession 
of George IV, was £633,031,562 12s. lid., and the annual 
expenditure was £69,488,899 13s. l\d. $ the actual net pro- 
duce of the kingdom being £71,796,196 As. 3f d. 

A royal salute fired in St. James' Park announced the 
accession of George IV. At the same moment, the Garter 
King at Arms appeared in the full dress of his office, and 
surrounded with the ceremonial paraphernalia $ "His 
Eoyal Highness," the Commander-in-Chief, and the other 
princes of the blood, the nobility of England, and a vast 
concourse of commons, were assembled in front of Carlton 
House. The proclamation was read, and the concluding 
u God Save the King !" was reiterated with emphasis by the 
royal and noble personages who stood around the herald, and 
echoed by the military and the assembled multitude. The 
proclamation was repeated at Temple Bar, where the 
authorities of the city awaited its approach. The ceremo- 
nial mummery of ancient times was faithfully preserved ; 
and after sundry knocks, queries, and responses, the gates 
of the city were opened to the besiegers, and the gaudy 
mass of mortality moved onwards to the assigned stations, 
where the necessary forms were again submitted to, till this 
cumbrous and uncouth mode of announcement had com- 
municated to all concerned the important intelligence which 
it was its province to convey. O royal humbuggery ! 

After the death of George IV a summary of the royal 
expenditures, from the accession of his father, George III, 
to 1820, was published, and which acquainted the masses 
with what become of the money coming from them in taxes, 

i 



534 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

representing the produce of their industry and skill. The 
total amount was one hundred million pounds in two reigns. 
What a text for the agitators for reform ! The following is 
an extract from one of thedocuments which contributed so 
much to the Chartist excitement : 

" The people of England have been so long familiarized 
to the lavish expenditures of their rulers, we fear they are 
unable to appreciate the magnitude of this sum. The best 
way is to bring the mind to reflect for a moment on the 
amount of evil it might have averted, or the good it might 
have accomplished, had it been judiciously appropriated to 
the attainment of objects of national utility. A republican, 
perhaps, would contend that nearly the whole of the hun- 
dred millions might have been saved to the community, and 
point to the people of the United States for an example of 
frugal government. Their King costs only five thousand a 
year instead of a million ; and their other functionaries are 
equally cheap and reasonable. As for Lords of the Bed- 
chamber, Grooms of the Stole, Master of the Hawks, and 
Master of the Eobes, they have none of those things. And 
where is the loss they have sustained % Their Government 
never appeared deficient in dignity or efficiency at home or 
abroad $ and the duties of the executive magistrates have 
been discharged just as well as in this country. Are not 
kings the fathers of their people % They are so called, but 
they are very unlike fathers, since, instead of feeding and 
protecting their children, their children feed and protect 
them. ***** Burke mentions that one 
plan of reform set on foot was suddenly stopped, because, 
forsooth, it would endanger the situation of an honorable 
member of the House who was turnspit in the royal Jcitchen. 
Whether the duties of this important officer continued to 
be discharged by a member of the honorable house we are 
not sure, but in looking over a list of the household we ob- 
serve that two noble lords occupy situations little inferior in 

% 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 535 

dignity j the Duke of St. Albans is Master of the Hawks, 
salary £1,372, and the Earl of Litchfield Master of the 
Dogs j salary £2,000. These offices sound rather degrading 
to vulgar ears, but no doubt it is love of the sovereign rather 
than the public money which actuates these noble person- 
ages." 

A work recently issued in London gives some curious 
details of parliamentary life in 1812 ; oue noble lord used 
to go out hunting followed by six or seven members of 
Parliament of his own making. Another lord, on being- 
asked who should be returned for member from his borough, 
named a waiter at White's Club.* It would seem that 
Tweed had a j)recedent for some of his municipal appoint- 
ments in New York. 

The flattery of interested and servile sycophants was one 
of the primary causes of the ruin of the character of George 
IY, when Prince $ and when Napoleon's senators aban- 
doned him and his fortunes, and in a memorable document 
complained of his despotism, he acknowledged it as candidly 
as he ascribed it justly to the spell of their incessant flat- 
teries. Here, then, we approach the very cause of that 
fatuity from which it is so difficult to separate kingly 
power. A state unnaturally elevated above all fellow men 
— the anticipated supply of every want which that state 
commands — the foretaste of every pleasure ere it be desired 
— the consequent inutility of every mental effort — the ennui 
which must ensue — the pride, fastidiousness, and morbid 
irritability in which the mind is consequently plunged — 
the influence of these upon attendants — the scarcely evit- 
able reaction of their minds in every supple and conciliatory 
device, in every artful and debasing flattery — the absence 
of all sincerity — the absolute proscription of simple and 
manly truth — the adoption of gaudy pageantry, which 
occupies the eye and ear, but touches not the heart. 

* Earl Russell's Recollections and Suggestions. London, 1875. 



530 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

Six months had scarcely elapsed from the demise of 
George III before another death occurred in the royal fam- 
ily, in the person of the Duchess of York. She had lived for 
some time in a state of separation from her husband, but 
they always entertained for each other a gentle regard. 

She was merciful to the beast, almost bordering on 
eccentricity. The tameness and plenty of game and the 
number of wild creatures on the demesne of Oatlands 
became proverbial. To the canine species she was particu- 
larly attached, her apartments resembling a dog kennel 
rather than the abode of a British princess. She was said 
to have the least foot of any female in England, and we 
are sorry for our fair American readers we cannot find any 
record of the lineal extent in inches, or we would put down 
the important fact. 

She was a great favorite of George III, and it was at a 
ball at Oatlands, in the year 1812, that the Prince of Wales 
sprained his ankle, in dancing with his daughter, the Prin- 
cess Charlotte. 

The spies and informers, known as the Milan Commis- 
sion, who had been put upon the track of Caroline, were 
now nearly ready in their parts and returned to England, 
to rehearse them before their employer, who was arranging 
the machinery for her destruction. Like his prototype and 
brother monarch, Henry VIII, George IV considered he 
had only one course to pursue ; and that was an immediate 
divorce, founded on the allegations of his worthy commis- 
sioners of the Milan junta, which attempted to prove a 
course of habitual adultery on the part of his expatriated 
wife. Her name had already been omitted, by his order, 
from the Liturgy of the Church of England. From this 
time, and during the succeeding twelve months, her situation 
engrossed almost all the attention of the people ; the nation 
became divided into two parties — the King's party and the 
Queen's party — for, be it remembered, since the death of 

25 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 537 

George III, she was virtually Queen Consort by "Act of 
Parliament;" while Mrs. Fitzherbert was, by divine law, 
his wife. Our limits will not allow more than a synopsis of 
the history of this unfortunate and persecuted woman, 
which exceeds in interest the most vivid fiction of romance 
or the drama. Granted that the charges against her pro- 
priety were true, she, on her part, had far better grounds 
against her husband ; the accusations against her had not 
been proved ; and the truth of these rested upon a set of 
witnesses who had been drilled into the service, and who 
were to be remunerated according to the amount of crimi- 
nality to which they would swear ; whereas, on the other 
hand, it was well known that since his marriage he had 
lived in open adulterous intercourse with several females. 
Although the laws of society distinguish in the degree of 
culpability of this heinous sin on the part of husband and 
wife, yet, weighed in the scale of virtue, the guilt is equal. 
The Queen determined to return to England, despite of the 
efforts of the ministry to prevent her. She applied to the 
Admiralty for a royal yacht, which was denied, and, with 
the precipitancy of an offended woman, she travelled by- 
post to Calais, and embarked in a common packet. Not- 
withstanding express commands had been given not to 
acknowledge her station at Calais, upon her arrival at 
Dover, she was received with a royal salute and a shout of 
congratulation by the people. The alleged adultery of 
the Queen being committed with a foreigner, Count Ber- 
gami, did not amount to treason, and was not an indictable 
offence, but a mere civil injury. Time was allowed the 
mutual friends of both parties to bring about an amicable 
arrangement. 

The King selected the Duke of Wellington and Lord 
Castlereagh, and the Queen appointed Mr. Brougham, 
afterwards. Lord Brougham, and Mr. Denman to manage 
the negotiation ; but their efforts were wholly unavailing. 



588 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

Accordingly, a Bill of Pains and Penalties was declared by 
the House, and j>resented by Lord Liverpool. The subsequent 
trial, and the noble defence of the Queen by Lord Brougham, 
are matter* of history. As before' asserted, the excitement 
was unparalleled in Great Britain. From G-reville's writ- 
ings on this subject we subjoin the following extracts : 

" In the meantime the Queen is coming to England, and Brougham is 
gone to meet her. Nobody knows what advice he intends to give her, 
but everybody believes that it is his intention she should come. It is sup- 
posed that Lady Conyngham's family (her son and brother) had set their 
faces against her connection with the King. 

June *lth. — The Queen arrived in London yesterday at seven o'clock. I 
.rode as far as Greenwich to meet her. The road was thronged with an 
immense multitude the whole way from Westminster Bridge to Greenwich 
Carriages, carts, and horsemen followed, preceded, and surrounded her 
coach the whole way. She was everywhere received with the greatest 
enthusiasm. Women waved pocket handkerchiefs, and men shouted when- 
ever she passed. She travelled in an open landau, Alderman Wood sitting 
by her side and Lady Ann Hamilton and another woman opposite. Every- 
body was disgusted at the vulgarity of Wood in sitting in the place of honor, 
while the Duke of Hamilton's sister was sitting backwards in the carriage_ 
The Queen looked exactly as she did before she left England, and seemed 
neither dispirited nor dismayed. As she passed by White's she bowed and 
smiled to the men who were in the window. The crowd was not great in 
the streets through which she passed. Probably people had ceased to 
expect her, as it was so much later than the hour designated for her arrival. 
It is impossible to conceive the sensation created by this event. Nobody 
either blames or approves of her sudden return, but all ask, " What will be 
done next ? How is it to end ?"' In the House of Commons there was little 
said; but the few words wnich fell from Cre^vy, Bennett, or Denman seem 
to threaten most stormy debates whenever the subject is discussed. The 
King in the meantime is in excellent spirits, and the ministers affect the 
greatest unconcern, and talk of the time it will take to pass the bills to "settle 
her business." "Her business," as they call it, will in all probability raise 
such a tempest as. they will find it beyond their powers to appease ; and. 
for all his Majesty's unconcern, the day of her arrival in England may be 
such an anniversary to him as he will have no cause to celebrate with much 
rejoicing. 

June 9th. — Brougham's speech on Wednesday is said byhis friends to have 



THE PRIVATE LIPE OF A KING. 539 

been one of the best that was ever made, and I think all agree that it was 
good and effective. The House of Commons is evidently anxious to get rid 
of the question, if possible, for the moment Wilberforce expressed a wish to 
adjourn, the county members rose one after another, and so strongly con- 
curred in that wish, that Castlereagh was obliged to consent. The mob have 
been breaking windows in all parts of the town, and pelting those who would 
not take off their hats as they passed "Wood's door. Last night Lord Exmouth's 
house was assaulted and his windows broken, when he rushed out, armed 
with sword and pistol, and drove away the mob. Frederick Ponsonby saw 
him. Great sums of money have been won and lost on the Queen's return 
for there was much betting at the clubs. 



The town is still in an uproar about the trial, and nobody has any doubt 
that it will finish by the bill being thrown out and the ministers turned out. 
Brougham's speech was the most magnificent display of argument and 
oratory that has been heard for years, and they say that the impression it 
made upon the House was immense. 

October 15ih. — Since I came to town I have been to the trial every day. 
I have occupied a place close to Brougham, which, besides the advantage 
it affords of enabling me to hear extremely well everything that passes, gives 
me the pleasure of talking to him and the other counsel, and puts me behind 
the scenes so far that I cannot help hearing all their conversation, their 
remarks, and learning what witnesses they are going to examine, and many 
other things which are- interesting and amusing. Since I have been in the 
world I never remernber any question which so exclusively occupied everybody's 
attention, and so completely absorbed men's thoughts and engrossed conversa- 
tion. In the same degree is the violence displayed. It is taken up as a party 
question entirely, and the consequence is that everybody is gone mad about /'• 
Very few people admit of any medium between pronouncing the Queen 
quite innocent and judging her guilty and passing the bill. Until the evi- 
dence of Lieutenant Hownam it was generally thought that proofs of her 
guilt were wanting, but since his admission that Bergami slept under the 
tent with her, all unprejudiced men seem to think the adultery sufficiently 
proved. The strenuous opposers of the bill, however, by no means allow 
this, and make a mighty difference between sleeping dressed under a tent 
and being shut up at night in a room together, which the supporters of the 
bill contend would have been quite or nearly the same thing. The Duke of 
Wellington told Madame de Lieven that he was very tired ; " mais les grands 
sacces fatiguent autant que les grands revers." They look upon the progress 
of this trial in the light of a campaign, and upon each day's proceedings as 



540 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

a sort of battle, and -by the impression made by the evidence they consider 
that they have gained a victory or sustained a defeat. Their anxiety Xhrj. 
this bill should pass is quite inconceivable, for it cannot be their interest 
that it should bo carried ; and, as for the King, they have no feeling what- 
ever for him. The Duke of Portland told me that he conversed with the 
Duke of "Wellington upon the subject, and urged as one of the reasons why 
this bill should not pass the House of Lords the disgrace that it would entail 
upon the King by the recrimination that would ensue in the House of Com- 
mons. His answer was " thai the King was degraded as low as he could be 
already." 

Those only who listened to Brougham's oration can form 
an adequate idea of its splendor and dignity. Its beauties 
were as evident as its effect was surprising. To transcribe 
a part of this address may be regarded as a species of liter- 
ary sacrilege ; yet so just and appropriate is the following 
summary of the trials to which Caroline had been succes- 
sively exposed that it is copied into these pages for the 
purj)ose of presenting a condensed view of her sufferings, 
notwithstanding the injustice which is thereby done to Mr. 
Brougham's oratory, by presenting one of his figures, 
detached from -its appropriate group. 

"It was always," said .Mr. Brougham, "the Queen's sad 
fate to lose her best stay, her strongest and surest protector, 
when danger threatened her ; and, by a coincidence most 
miraculous in her eventful history, not one of her intrepid 
defenders was ever withdrawn from her without that loss 
being the immediate signal for the renewal of momentous 
attacks upon her honor and her life. Mr. Pitt, who had 
been her constant friend and protector, died in 1806. A 
few weeks after that event took place, the first attack was 
levelled at her. Mr. Pitt ieft her as a legacy to Mr. Perce- 
val, who became her best, her most undaunted, her firmest 
protector. But no sooner had the hand of an assassin laid 
prostrate that minister than Her Royal Highness felt the 
force of the blow by the commencement of a renewed attack, 
though she had but just then borne through the last by 



THE PRIVATE LEFE OF A KINO. 541 

Mr. Perceval's skilful and powerful defence of her charac- 
ter. Mr. Whitbread then undertook her protection ; but 
soon that melancholy catastrophe happened which all good 
men of every political party in the state, he believed, sin- 
cerely and universally lamented. Then came, with Mr. 
Whitbread's dreadful loss, the murmuring of that storm 
which was so soon to burst, with all its tempestuous fury, 
upon her hapless and devoted head. Her child still lived, 
and was her friend ; her enemies were afraid to strike, for 
they, in the wisdom of the world, worshipped the rising sun. 
But when she lost that amiable and beloved daughter, she 
had no protector; her enemies had nothing to dread ; inno- 
cent or guilty, there was no hope; and she yielded to the 
in treaty of those who advised her residence out of this 
country. Who, indeed, could love persecution so stead- 
fastly as to stay and brave its renewal and continuance, 
and harass the feelings of the only one she loved so dearly 
by combatting such repeated attacks, which were still 
reiterated after the record of the fullest acquittal ? It was, 
however, reserved fpr the Milan Commission to concentrate 
and condense all the threatening clouds which were prepared 
to burst upon her ill-fated head; and, as if it were utterly 
impossible that the Queen could lose a single protector 
without the loss being instantaneously followed by the com- 
mencement of some important step against her, the same 
day which saw the remains of her venerable sovereign 
entombed — of that beloved sovereign who was from the 
outset her constant father and friend — that same sun which 
shone upon the monarch's tomb ushered into the palace of 
his illustrious son <md successor one of the perjured wit- 
nesses who were brought over to depose against Her 
Majesty's life." 

Nor should the following bold, yet correct, and indeed 
inimitable, peroration to this incomparable speech be 
omitted : 



542 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

" Such, my lords," said Mr. Brougham, " is the case 
now before you ; and such is the evidence by which it is 
attempted to be upneld. It is evidence, inadequate to 
prove any proposition 5 impotent to deprive the subject of 
any civil right ; ridiculous, to establish the least offence ; scan- 
dalous, to support a charge of the highest nature; mon- 
strous, to ruin the honor of the Queen of England. What 
shall I say of it, then, as evidence to support a judicial act 
of legislature — an ex post facto law ? My lords, I call upon 
you to pause. You stand on the brink of a precipice. If 
your judgment shall go out against the Queen, it will be 
the only act that ever went out without effecting its pur- 
pose; it will return to you upon your own heads. Save 
the country — save yourselves. Rescue the country — save 
the ^people of whom you are the ornaments, but severed 
from whom, you can no more live than the blossom that is 
severed from the root and tree on which it grows. Save 
the country, therefore, that you may continue to adorn it 5 
save the crown, which is threatened with irreparable 
injury ; save the aristocracy, which is surrounded with dan- 
ger; save the altar, which is no longer safe when its 
kindred throne is shaken. You see that, when the Church 
and the throne would allow of no Church solemnity in 
behalf of the Queen, the heartfelt prayers of the people rose 
to Heaven for her protection; and here I pour forth my 
fervent supplication at the Throne of Mercy, that mercies 
may descend, on the people of this country, richer than 
their rulers have deserved, and that your hearts may be 
turned to justice." 

On the 24th of October terminated the examination of 
the witnesses for the Queen ; and Mr. Denman, in a speech 
of transcendent eloquence and great ability, recapitulated 
the insufficiency of the evidence for the prosecution, and 
retraced the nature of the counteracting testimony given 
for the Queen. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 543 

Caroline was advised by her counsel to attend at the 
House of Lords, and sign lier protest against the bill, 
which having signed, she exclaimed, " Begina still, in spite 
of them!" 

The House then went into a committee on the preamble 
of the bill, and afterwards proceeded to consider its enact- 
ments,* when the Archbishop of York spoke against the 
divorce clause, and was followed on the same side by the 
Bishops of Chester and Worcester. A long debate ensued, 
and the House adjourned. 

The bill was finally withdrawn. 

The announcement was received with cheers. Caroline 
heard the communication without emotion, but the nation 
evinced satisfaction as sincere as it was universal. Parlia- 
ment vas immediately prorogued, but the excitement 
which prevailed in the public mind had no precedent in 
English history. The people caught hold of every circum- 
stance which could afford them an opportunity of loudly 
expressing their disapprobation of the measures adopted 
against the Queen', and although the King very wisely 
and politically kept himself completely private, as if he had 
no interest in the result, nor had been in the least instru- 
mental to the getting up of the comico-ludicro-tragico 
drama, yet by his own party he was most exuberantly 
praised for his royal proof of his delicacy, liberality, and 
impartiality; but by the other party his conduct was re- 
garded as characteristic of cowardice and injustice, in not 
daring to step forth, and show himself as the actual prose- 
cutor of his wife, when it was well known that the whole 
of the proceedings issued from Carlton House, and that 
ministers themselves entered upon the business with re- 
pugnance and hesitation. 

The effect of the withdrawal of the bill acted with an 
electrical force upon the country • even the Funds felt its 
influence, and address upon address flowed in upon u Her 



544 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

Majesty," congratulatory of the victory which she had ob- 
tained. Prince Leopold and the Duke of Sussex visited 
her, to which circumstance is to be attributed the preju- 
dice which the King ever after entertained against those 
illustrious personages, and which was never wholly re- 
moved, even on the brink of the grave 3 30 powerfid was 
the hate of this royal debauchee. 

Caroline now resolved on returning public thanks to the 
Great Disposer of all events for the deliverance she had 
obtained from the evils apprehended, and for the with- 
drawment of the Bill of Pains and Penalties. It was 
alleged that she only designed this as an open insult to the 
King and to the members of the House of Peers, who had 
voted in favor of the bill 5 and it cannot be denied that 
political as well as religious feeling determined Caroline 
publicly to offer up her acknowledgments to Heaven. Nor 
can it be disputed that she felt grateful for her deliverance 
from approaching danger and calamity, and, indeed, she 
frequently expressed her conviction that the providence of 
God had interfered in her behalf. It was dignified and 
correct to appear in the grand cathedral of the metropolis, 
there to offer up her acknowledgments as a Christian. If 
she was a believer in divine law, why did she marry 
George Guelph, whom, as we have elsewhere shown, she 
knew was alread}^ married by that High Court in whose 
sanctuary she purposed to appear % The publicity of the 
avowal of her belief in the great doctrines of Christianity 
was a proceeding neither novel nor improper ; but the na- 
ture of the procession, and the feelings which the shouts of 
the populace were calculated to inspire, alas ! ill accorded 
with those feelings of reverence and humility with which 
a creature should approach the Governor of the Universe. 

She was doomed to experience the bitterness of disap- 
pointment and the most extreme mortification. An appli- 
cation had been made to the proper authorities that a 

25* 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 6$& 

sermon might be delivered on the occasion, but the request 
was refused j and notwithstanding the abandonment of the 
Bill of Pains and Penalties, her name was not inserted in 
the Liturgy. It was in vain urged that she was either 
acquitted or not acquitted j that in the latter case minis- 
ters ought to bring forward their accusations and com- 
mence new proceedings, or that, if she were acquitted, she 
ought to be put in possession of her rights. She urged her 
friends, if possible, to obtain the insertion of her name in 
the Liturgy, or a declaration from Parliament that by its 
vote it was desired that such insertion might be made, but 
the application of her friends was unattended with any 
beneficial result. 

It forms not one of the least remarkable features in the 
conduct of George IV towards Caroline, that, in total igno- 
rance of her real character, he considered that all the 
grievances of which she complained, all the maltreatment 
which she endured, and all the odium and obloquy which 
were heaped upon her, ^ere to be stifled and effaced by a 
bribe of money. Thus, in the speech which was delivered 
by the King at the opening of the session of Parliament, 
he recommended that some provision should be made for 
the Queen, and it was accordingly proposed by the Admin- 
istration that the annual sum of £50,000 should be allowed 
her. (What would Americans say to giving Mrs. Grant 
$250,000 per annum ?) What greater proof can be adduced 
of the noble, generous, and forgiving disposition of the 
King ? exclaimed his partisans ; how kind and conciliating 
his heart must be, to make it the first object of his care to 
provide for the comforts and personal convenience of an in- 
dividual who had so deeply, grossly injured him ; who had 
attempted to beard him on his very throne, and who, by 
her scandalous conduct, had alienated from him the affec- 
tion and loyalty of his people ! 



546 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 



ffitwtrtw MUm. 



Milton truly says, " the very trappings of royalty cost 
more than the whole "establishment of republics." The 
ministers of George IV asked Parliament for a grant of 
£100,000 only to defray the cost of his coronation, but the 
ceremony turned out something like his palace building 
estimates, the actual cost of the royal show amounting to 
£238,000. Upwards of one million dollars to gratify a 
royal pride of display. Could not Congress grant at least 
as much to commemorate some event in our centennial his- 
tory % 

In extent, grandeur, costliness, and splendor of costume, 
no Court pageant since the revels of Kenilworth can be 
compared with the coronation of George IV. The love of 
pomp and parade was one of the ruling passions of this 
luxurious monarch, in the indulgence of which he never 
stopped to consult the interests of the people or the prin- 
ciples of economy. The pageant of his coronation had 
long presented itself to his imagination as one richly 
adapted to please his vanity and to tickle the fools of his 
Court. 

It has been already stated that this ceremony had been 
delayed on account of the Queen's arrival from the conti- 
nent and the subsequent trial. It being considered now 
expedient to withdraw the attention of the public from that 
subject, it was determined that the coronation should be 
got up, to borrow a theatrical phrase, and probably a more 
expensive tub was never thrown to a whale. The course of 
Louis Napoleon was more sensible, for, when he wished to 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 547 

divert the attention of the Parisians from pnblic grievances, 
he set them to pulling* down old Paris and building new 
streets and avenues. 

At the coronation of kings it had been almost invariably 
the custom that queen consorts should be crowned, and the 
propriety of maintaining the custom cannot be disputed. 
Caroline felt on this occasion that, if she were only nomi- 
nally queen consort, then all those rights which according to 
consuetudo regni had been enjoyed by them, were at once 
declared to be nullities. She therefore personally addressed 
a letter to the King, accompanied by a request that it 
might not be opened by ministers, but forwarded directly 
to His Majesty. In that letter she requested she might be 
crowned, and briefly stated the reasons why she expected 
that her requisition would not be refused. The King, how- 
ever, had long directed that no letter from Caroline should 
be communicated to him until its contents were first per- 
used by his ministers, and Caroline's letter was therefore 
opened by them. He was, however, apprised of the nature 
of the application, and, after deliberating with the law 
officers, he directed Lord Liverpool to transmit the infor- 
mation to Caroline, u that it is His Majesty's prerogative to 
regulate the ceremonial of his coronation in such a manner 
as he may think fit ; that the Queen can form no part of 
that ceremonial except in consequence of a distinct author- 
ity from the King, and that it is not His Majesty's inten- 
tion, under existing circumstances, to give any such 
authority." As a kind of quietus, however, to Her Majesty, 
the pliant courtier closed his reply with the intimation that 
the King had dispensed with the attendance of all ladies 
at his coronation. 

Caroline was not to be intimidated by the reply, but 
instantly resolved to memorialize the King, representing to 
him that, as many manors and lands were held on the 
express tenure that services should be done by them for 



548 THE PRIVATE LIFE OP A KING. 

queen consorts at their coronations, it was peculiarly 
proper that such tenures should not be invalidated, nor 
such services discontinued, lest their discontinuance should 
be subsequently construed into a precedent. 

It was agreed, even by the advisers of the King, that in 
England no queen consort had ever been denied a corona- 
tion. Henry II, and afterwards Henry VII, delayed the 
coronation of their consorts, and endeavored to withhold 
the ceremony altogether, but both were obliged to yield to 
the general usage, and those consorts were crowned. 

It is a matter of no little moment to inquire whether 
George IV, or, more politically speaking, his ministers, did 
not actually infringe a law of the land in their refusal to 
allow Caroline to participate in the ceremonies of the cor- 
onation ) at all events, it is admitted, now that the passions 
have subsided and men have shaken off the influence of 
party spirit, that the whole conduct of the King and his 
ministers towards Caroline was marked by a malignity 
and rancor which are in general only residents in a little 
mind. 

We have considered it necessary to make the foregoing 
remarks as the circumstance of the refusal to allow the 
Queen to be crowned, led to a most melancholy residt, 
which gave a wholly new feature to the political relations 
of the country. 

The morning of the 19th of July, the day appointed for 
the coronation, at length arrived. To enter into a fuil detail 
of all the minutiae of the pagent would carry us far beyond 
our limits, we shall, therefore, merely confine ourselves to 
a brief description. As early as one o'clock in the morning 
the privileged began their approach ; crowds of foot pas- 
sengers hastened to take possession of their places on the 
temporary hustings, which had been erected through the 
whole line of the procession by some speculating individu- 
als at an enormous expense. Long lines of vehicles and 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 549 

the muster of troops distinguished the very dawn of a 
bright summer morning, which was hailed by the bells of 
St. Margaret's. Already groups of picturesque and char- 
acteristic figures began to assemble, and the combinations 
were often of the most motley kind. A peer in his corona- 
tion robes, a pursuivant, or a gentleman pensioner might 
be seen mingling with the indiscrimate crowd ; diamonds 
glittered, plumes were waving, and the fair and noble of 
the land emerged at intervals from the living mass. 

Everything being arranged by the marshal, and each 
person in his place, a signal gun was fired, and the trum- 
pets played " God Save the King," and His Majesty, most 
splendidly attired, entered the Hall at Westminster exactly 
as the clock struck ten. The arrangements of the regalia 
and presentation of the crown being over, the staff of 
Edward, the spurs, the swords of temporal and spiritual 
justice, and of mercy, and the sword of state, the sceptre 
and crown, the orb, St.' Edward's crown, the patina, the 
chalice, and the Bible, were each delivered to its proper 
bearer, and the grand procession began to move from 
Westminster Hall to the Abbey. The King, the royal 
dukes, the prelates, the nobility, the ministry, the army 
and navy, the House of Commons, and the orders of 
knighthood, by themselves or their representatives, formed 
a part of the magnificent spectacle. The costume of dis- 
tinguished periods of national history was chosen with 
taste and judgment, and in splendor and effect was well 
calculated to please the warmest admirer of pomp and 
pageantry.* It was observed that the King on his way 
from the Hall to the Abbey received none of those warm 
and hearty salutations which are the meed of a patriot 
King, and which are generally given by a people attached 
to their monarch for his virtues and his principles. 

* A copy of the magnificent work illustrating this gorgeous pageant is in 
Tiankliu Library, Philadelphia. 



550 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

The tributary flowers strewn in the pathway of the pro- 
cession began to be scattered within the Abbey about 
eleven, and the anthem pealed along the venerable aisles, 
swelled by one hundred instruments and twice that num- 
ber of voices, while each place was taken by its appointed 
tenant, and the blaze of beauty almost eclipsed the glitter 
of pageantry. The recognition, or presentation to the 
King, was followed by the spontaneous homage of the 
people; the oblation and prayer introduced the religious 
service of the day ; and, at the end of the sermon, the 
oath was administered by the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
and taken by the King. He was then anointed with 
holy oil, as " kings, priests, and prophets were anointed." 
The spurs were presented, and then returned as an obla- 
tion, and being girt with the sword of state, he removed 
and with his own hand offered it also on the altar. The 
armill and robe of state were next disposed around the 
royal person. The orb was placed in the hand of. the King, 
and he was invested with the ring. The sceptre and the 
rod were successively presented, while the Lord of the 
Manor of Workshop supported the arm. The crown, sancti- 
fied by prayer, was raised above the King's head, and as it 
descended the universal shout of " God Save the King!" 
spoke the assent of the people to the right of the sover- 
eign. The peers and knights immediately assumed their 
caps and coronets. The King received the Bible with the 
appropriate admonition to its study. The Archbishop gave 
his benediction and the choir chanted Te Deum, during 
which the ceremonial kiss was given by the monarch to the 
spiritual peers assisting in the coronation, and represent- 
ing the Church espoused in the solemnity as the bride of 
the sovereign. Being raised unto the throne, and sur- 
rounded by the great officers, the King received the hom- 
age of the assembled peers, and medals of gold were 
scattered among the people as largess from their ruler. 



THE PBIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 561 

Solemn and triumphant strains from the choir accompanied 
this most interesting relic of feudal rites — acknowledgment 
by all the lieges. The public act of communion as a testi- 
mony of faith and of religious gratitude succeeded, and 
solemn prayer concluded the ceremony. 

During the time that these ceremonies were performing 
in the interior of the Abbey, a very different scene was 
enacting without. At a very early hour in the morning, 
in pursuance of her resolution, Caroline i^roceeded to West- 
minster in a carriage drawn by six horses. Her approach 
was announced by loud acclamation, mingled with mur- 
murs of discontent without the barrier, and accompanied 
with a kind of confusion and anxious agitation within. 
Her carriage, without the least interruption, passed the 
barrier and proceeded to the door of Westminster Hall, 
where she stopped, uncertain what course to take. Great 
confusion prevailed among the officers and soldiers on and 
near the platform. Astonishment, hurry, and doubt agi- 
tated the minds of the populace, and every heart thrilled 
either with pity, surprise, or disapprobation. Caroline, 
after some consideration, accompanied by Lord and Lady 
Hood, and Lady Ann Hamilton,* demanded admission. 
This movement produced a considerable sensation within, 
and the bar was immediately closed ; the officer on guard 
was summoned to the spot, and demanded Her Majesty's 
ticket $ she replied that she had none, and, as Queen of 
England, needed none. He expressed his regret, but said 
he must obey his orders, and that he would not admit her 
without a ticket. She made a similar application at the 
door of the Duchy of Lancaster, but there she met with 
the same repulse ; accompanied by her attendants, she then 
demanded admission at a third entrance. When she 
arrived at the other extremity of the platform, her progress 
was arrested by a file*)f a dozen soldiers, who were ordered 

* Su]?pb'se& authoress of a Secret History df Court Life extant 



552 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

to form across the platform. Caroline then quitted it, and 
walked into the House of Lords, there to repeat the same 
request 5 in the course of a few minutes she returned, and, 
ordering the top of her carriage to be taken down, rode off 
amidst the mingled hisses and acclamations of the people. 

The treatment which Caroline received on the morning of 
this day was to her a most severe trial, but yet she studied 
to conceal her feelings. When she returned from the Ab- 
bey she sent for some friends to visit her, and she appeared 
to be in excellent spirits $ she related to them the refusals 
with which she had met, and said u the people did all they 
could." She said that she had put on her jewels to demon- 
strate to the people that she had not sold them 5 and when 
she was complimented for her courage in facing so many dan- 
gers, she replied, u I never was afraid of anything in my 
life ; I do not know what fear is 5 I do not wish to die, but 
when the moment comes I shall not fear it." 

Although she thus feigned to be the gayest among the 
party during the greater part of the morning, it was evi- 
dent to her intimate friends that the transactions of that 
day had tended more completely to subdue her natural 
heroism and magnanimity than any other occurrences which 
had hitherto taken place, and that the smile of satisfaction 
was only adopted as a veil to hide from observation her 
real mortification and unhappiness. She felt that she was 
only nominally a Queen, and that after the exertions that 
had been made by herself and others to effect her recogni- 
tion in that capacity, and the preservation of her rights, all 
their efforts had proved abortive, and she was nearly as 
much degraded as if the Bill of Pains and Penalties had 
passed both Houses of the Legislature. 

The excitement occasioned by the gaudy pageant of the 
coronation had no sooner subsided than the attention of 
the people was turned to the enormous expenses which had 
been incurred, and which were to be defrayed from the 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 553 

public purse. The single item of £25,000 for the robes of 
the King, which were only worn for a few hours, and then 
to be deposited as useless lumber on the shelves of the 
royal wardrobe, naturally met with the indignant reproba- 
tion of the people. They beheld their interests sacrificed, 
their distresses aggravated, their feelings trifled with, for 
the mere purpose of satisfying an inordinate love of pomp 
and pageantry in their sovereign. With the last light that 
was extinguished at the banquet scene, at which, an hour 
before, shone the pride of English beauty and of English 
chivalry j with the last retiring step from the now deserted 
Hall, gradually subsided also the public interest in the 
pageant ; and it was then discovered that, with the excep- 
tion of the aristocracy and the immediate dependents of 
the Court, its retainers and its minions, the public voice de- 
precated the ceremony ; and that, so far from adding to the 
popularity of the monarch, it abrogated from him all claim 
and title to the character of a patriotic King. The venal 
crew, hired for the purpose to exclaim u God Save the King !" 
and to hiss Caroline, were people of a different stamp and 
character than those who but a few days before had led 
the ranks and filled up the van of public opinion. They 
were the vain, the aristocratic, and the wealthy, who could 
pay for such exhibitions, while the spacious area in view 
was filled with the King's partisans, selected from the sub- 
ordinate station and feeling in society ; many even of these 
hung their heads with shame, as if conscious to themselves 
of the mean and dastardly part they were acting, in direct 
opposition to the general voice of their countrymen. This, 
indeed, was not a time that the King could stoop to feel, "it 
was the holiday of hypocrisy and dissimulation. After the 
day of the coronation the mask dropped from the royal face. 
The carnival was over, and the royal actor approached the 
crisis of his policy. The blow had taken effect. It had 
struck on the heart of the unhappy Caroline. 



554 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

It was early in the month of August that the King 
departed on his tour to Ireland, in which country he arrived 
on the 12th. Not being able to reach the bay of Dublin, 
he landed at Howth, from the Lightning steampacket, 
about four o'clock in the afternoon. His Majesty was, 
however, recognized before he left the steamboat, and the 
most loyal feelings from " the finest pesintry" in the world 
welcomed him on shore. He very cordially acknowledged 
his gratification, and when in his carriage shook hands with 
many of the throng, and appeared for a time to drop the 
king, enjoying the absence of etiquette, and indulging in 
the humor of the moment. Signal guns conveyed the first 
notice of the King's arrival ; the bells of the churches took 
up the intelligence, and the characteristic enthusiasm of the 
nation Avas manifested on all sides. Immense crowds fol- 
lowed the course of the royal carriage, and from the steps 
of the vice-regal lodge the King addressed the multitude 
in the following highly classical speech. To analyze this 
speech in all its parts would be a task of no great difficulty, 
and from the sentiments expressed in it, and the language 
in which they were conveyed, we can easily suppose them 
to have been the genuine effusions of the royal mind. He 
began as follows : 

" My Lords and G-entlemen, and My G-ood Yeomanry — 

I cannot express to you the gratification I feel at this kind and warm 
reception I have met with on this day of my landing among my Irish sub- 
jects. I am obligeed * to you, very much obligeed to you ; I am particularly 
obligeed by your escorting me to my very door. I may not be able to express 
my feelings as I wish. I have traveled far ; that is, I have made a long sea 
voyage; I have sailed down the English Channel, and sailed up the Irish 
Channel, and I have just landed from a steamboat; besides which, particu- 

* Not all the preceptorship, nor the perseverance of John Kemble, could 
ever cure the King of this vulgar pronunciation. It became at last fashion- 
able at the royal table, for etiquette would not permit the ears of royalty to 
be offended, nor such a tacit insult offered to royal dignity, as to pro- 
nounce a word differently from, the manner in which it escaped the kingly 
Htw." 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 555 

lar circumstances have occurred, known to you all, of -which it is better at 
present not to speak (he alluded to the death of Caroline ;) upon these sub- 
jects I leave it to your delicate and generous hearts to appreciate my feelings. 
However, I can assure you that this is the happiest day of my life. (Most 
affectionate husband I ) I have long wished to visit you ; my heart has 
always been Irish ; from the day it first beat I have loved Ireland. This 
day has shown me that I am beloved by my Irish subjects. Rank, station, 
honors are nothing ; but to feel that I live in the hearts of my Irish subjects 
is to me the most exalted happiness. I must now once more thank you for 
your kindness, and bid you farewell. Go and do by me as as I shall do by 
you; drink my health in a bumper; I shall drink all yours in a bumper 
of good Irish whiskey." 

We will not follow the steps of the panegyrist of royalty, 
who discovered in this speech a laudable degree of John 
Bull bluntness, and who declared it to be one of the most 
appropriate speeches which ever fell from the lips of royalty. 
It was said to have had such an impression on the varm 
and unsophisticated heartsof the Irish, that many, although 
not used to the melting^mood, shed tears ; and that they so 
far obeyed the injunctions of their patriotic monarch that 
the streets of Dublin were crowded during the whole of the 
night with drunken people; in fact, the whole spirits of the 
nation seemed excited to a pitch of intoxication ; in their 
own forcible language, they were mad with joy. The 
public authorities paid their duty at a private levee on the 
15th, and the great and noble of the land, unaccustomed to 
the smiles of royalty, appeared to partake of the rapture of 
the lower ranks on the arrival of His Majesty ; his apparent 
affability delighted them; and the most extravagant hopes 
of national and individual benefit originated in this visit. 
The public entry into Dublin occurred on the 17th, and the 
King then took possession of the Castle, which became 
the Palace. On the 23rd the King dined with the Lord 
Mayor, and on the 24th he visited the Royal Society; and, 
after exhausting the pleasures of Irish sociality and visiting 
the wonders of the capital — lie being, himself, the greatest 



556 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

wonder to the capital — he departed on the 7th of September. 
His embarkation was greeted with the same enthusiastic 
cheers that had marked his landing. It is remarkable that 
stormy and foggy weather, on both occasions, impeded the 
progress of the royal squadron. On Thursday, the 13th, 
the King landed at Milford Haven, and immediately after- 
wards commenced his journey to London. 

The greatest expectations were entertained on both sides 
from this visit of the King to Ireland ; but they were fatally 
disappointed j nor, indeed, do we see on what good grounds 
those expectations could have been formed; the mere pres- 
ence of the King possessed in itself no talismanic power to 
stifle the complaints of the Irish people; nor is it on record 
that, during the residence of the King in Ireland, he applied 
himself, in any manner, to a discovery of the means by 
which the grievances of the people could be redressed. 
The love of show, of ostentation and parade, appeared to 
rule all his actions. Kept in a continued whirl of pleasure 
and dissipation, he left the Irish coast as ignorant of the 
internal discord and misery of the country as when he 
landed on it. He came to see the capital, not tfie country ; 
not a single patriotic view was combined with his journey ; 
it was the effect of royal whim ; and he could give no other 
reason for it than that it was his royal pleasure. The con- 
sequences of the visit soon manifested themselves ; the 
feverish excitement of the period soon subsided, and the 
sanguine people, finding no immediate good from the King's 
presence, agreed to attribute a great portion of their exist- 
ing evils to that cause. Poverty and misery awakened 
discontent and disunion ; flames were kindled, murders 
perpetrated, and the most diabolical outrages prevailed. 
The counties of Limerick, Mayo, Tipperary, and Cavan, 
being in the greatest state of disturbance, were proclaimed 
by the Privy Council ; a large military force was sent to 
subdue a spirit that was fostered by midnight meetings, 



THE PiUVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 557 

and betrayed itself in the most atrocious crimes. Religious 
discord gangrened the wounds of political animosity ; 
revenge and individual hatred dictated the darkest crimes, 
under the shadow of public good, on the one side, and 
patriotic impulse on the other. Executions, imprisonments, 
and military occupation were not sufficient to repress the 
tumults, nor prevent the dreadful conflagrations and san- 
guinary struggles to which they gave birth. The Lord 
Lieutenant was recalled, a special commission for the trial 
of offenders was sent into the disturbed districts, and 
punishment followed an excitement that power could not 
repress. The year ended amidst these horrors j the King's 
visit to Ireland appeared like a blink of sunshine on the 
island j but its dubious splendor was only the precursor of 
the storm ; it rolled away, but the sullen lour still continued 
threatening. Whilst the King, however, was revelling in 
the hospitality of the^Lrish capital, a very different scene 
was enacting in the vicinity of his English one. 

The Queen Consort of George IV, after his coronation, 
had retired to Brandenburg House, with the intention of 
leading a life of dignified retirement. The extreme agitation 
and excitement, however, which she had lately undergone 
had wholly deranged the physical functions of her body; an 
obstruction of the bowels took place, which subsequently 
terminated in inflammation and mortification. Her legal 
advisers, therefore, attended at Brandenburg House, to 
aid in the arrangement of her property and its disposition 
by will. Those who before developed no peculiar interest 
in her cause now hastened to Brandenburg House, and the 
vicinity of her town residence was incessantly thronged 
with individuals of all classes of society deeply interested 
in her welfare, and solicitous for her restoration. 

The King, at this momentous period, had quitted England 
on his Irish excursion, and the intelligence of her illness 
was transmitted to him, yet no inquiries were ever made at 



568 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

Brandenburg House by any official agent of Government, 
and the customary attentions which are due to exalted 
rank were wholly withheld from her. It would, indeed, 
have been absurd to expect that the King or his Adminis- 
tration should have been affected by the news of the illness 
of Caroline, for they had long since ceased to feel any inter- 
est respecting her ; and although her death might not be 
exactly desired, yet it was not likely to affect either their 
minds or their hearts. 

Two circumstances occurred at this period of her illness, 
which are strongly illustrative of her conscious innocence, 
and the amiability of her disposition. On the 4th of 
August, when her professional advisers were receiving 
instructions respecting the disposition of her property, one 
of them suggested the propriety of sending a messenger to 
Italy to seal up her papers, to prevent them falling into 
the hands of her enemies. " And what if they do f exclaimed 
Caroline, " I have no papers that they may not see. They 
can find nothing, because there is nothing, nor ever has 
been, to impeach my character." One of her legal advisers 
said he was perfectly aware of that, but he could not but 
believe that her enemies might put there what they did not 
find. She replied, " I have always defied their malice, and 
I defy it still." 

Every symptom of approaching dissolution soon after- 
wards manifested itself, and the continued existence of 
spasmodic affection convinced her attendants that nature 
must soon give up the struggle, and that a frame already 
exhausted by suffering of mind and body must sink under 
the pressure of accumulated ills. Their apprehensions were 
well founded ; for, after sleeping for some time, her eyes 
became fixed, her muscles rigid, and a stupor ensued, from 
which she never awoke, and at twenty-five minutes after 
ten o'clock, on August 7th, 1821, she expired. 

The intelligence of the death of Caroline was immectt- 

26 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 559 

ately transmitted to the King, then in Ireland ; and we 
here, in the most unequivocal terms, falsify the statements 
which were got up at the time, expressive of the decorous 
line of conduct which His Majesty pursued on hearing of 
the death of his consort. It is certain that he received the 
intelligence without a single emotion of a painful nature. 
To him it was certainly an event wholly unexpected ; and 
to him it was almost unimportant. He neither loved nor 
respected her ; the former passion he had never pretended 
to feel, and the latter sentiment could not be cherished by 
him if he considered her guilty of the crimes which had 
been alleged against her, and which he certainly did not 
wholly discredit.* 

* The death of Queen Caroline forms a melancholy page in history. With- 
out possessing those finer qualities of mind which invests the character of 
Mary Stuart, '' the Queen of Tears," with such enduring interest, there were 
many similar features in their lives ; both were undoubtedly indiscreet, both 
possessing high, uncontrollable spirits, at last broken by malignant persecu- 
tors, which only ceased with their lives. The axe which fell upon the neck 
of Mary cut not more keenly than the unseen stabs which severed the heart- 
strings of Caroline. What a lesson is here for those republicans who see so 
much to admire in the meretricious glare of royalty ! They regard the splen- 
dor of their palaces and equipages, the vanity of their pleasures, and the 
fulsome flattery of courtiers, as evidences of exalted happiness, despite the 
lessons which history is continually repeating. Look at the vicissitudes of 
royalty in the past few} r ears: Maximilian falls from a throne to a coffin; 
Carlotta a lunatic; Napoleon, at once the dread and admiration of Europe, 
dying a fugitive exile under the protection of that power w,hich banished his 
great predecessor to St. Helena. Uoyalty is nothing more than a common 
humanity decked in a more splendid garb, and regal robes have no intrinsic 
power to ward off the vicissitudes of life. Language is too feeble to express 
the universal interest excited by the funeral of the Queen, in the whole pro- 
ceedings of which Government acted in direct opposition to the wishes of the 
people; a system of the most mean and pitiful action was adopted, as if the 
poor mouldering corpse in its gilded coffin was still imbued with power to 
give further annoyance. The remains were hurriedly removed from Ham- 
mersmith, and finally interred in the mausoleum of her forefathers at 
Brunswick. 



560 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 



<&U$Ux gtvmUm. 



Shortly after the death of Caroline, George IV, in a 
spirit of Quixotism, resolved to visit his loyal subjects of 
Hanover. The necessary arrangements having been made, 
he embarked at Gravesend, and after a rongh passage 
landed at Calais. From here to Lisle, Brussels, Aix-la- 
Chapelle, Dusseldorf, and Osnaburgh. 

On the day after his departure^ from Osnaburg the King 
was met at Meuberg by the Dukes of Cumberland and 
Cambridge, the Court? House there having been previously 
prepared for their reception. A sumptuous banquet was 
given by the authorities of the place, at which the three 
royal brothers attended ; and at which the King gave to 
his Hanoverian subjects the same information which he 
had given to his Irish ones ; assuring them that it was 
the happiest day of his life, and that the promotion of 
their prosperity should always be the predominant feeling 
of his heart. 

The Hanoverians believed in reality that Heaven had 
sent them the best of Kings ; and on the day when he was 
drawn through the capital in an open carriage by eight 
cream colored horses, exhibiting himself to the gaze of all 
the inhabitants of the city, they were further convinced 
that Heaven had also sent them one of the most affable and 
condescending of monarchs. 

It now became necessary to feel the pulse of the Han- 
overians, how far they might be disposed to natter the 
vanity of their sovereign by putting themselves to the ex- 
pense of a coronation. It was hinted that such a ceremony 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 561 

would be highly agreeable to their King, and the national 
pride was cherished by the promulgation of the most im- 
portant fact that the inhabitants of the city of Hanover 
would be able to boast of having witnessed the performance 
of a ceremony of which the inhabitants of no other German 
city could boast. Notwithstanding, however, the great 
loyalty of the worthy Hanoverians, there were some mur- 
muring spirits among them, who, with the knowledge that 
the public coffers were in a most impoverished state, ven- 
tured to insinuate, that as there was no existing law in 
Hanover which imposed the necessity of the coronation of 
the monarch, and especially as it was known to all that 
" His Majesty " had not honored them with his visit with 
any intent of being crowned, whether, under those circum- 
stances, the incurring of so heavy an expense might not be 
avoided, without offering the slightest insult to royalty, or 
detracting a tittle from the royal dignity. The Hanoverian 
economists also suggested that, as the robes worn by their 
King a few months before at his coronation in England, 
could not be much the worse for wear, whether the loan of 
them could not be procured, which would prove a great saving 
in the general expenses of the ceremony. To this wise sug- 
gestion, however, a positive objection was raised, that the 
coronation could not be postponed until the arrival of the 
royal robes from London, independently of the personal 
insult which would be offered to their sovereign by the 
adoption of such a parsimonious system. It was, therefore, 
finally determined that the coronation should take place in 
despite of the suggestions of the economists, and it was 
performed, as the Hanoverian journalist expresses himself, 
u with a splendor worthy of the august Monarch on whose 
illustrious head the crown of Hanover was placed, and for 
whose future health and happiness tens of thousands of his 
admiring subjects sent forth their prayers to Heaven." On 
this occasion the whole city was illuminated at night ; and 



562 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

the King, with his two royal brothers, were seen parading 
the streets enjoying the brilliancy of the scene. 

George IV was never much addicted to the sports of the 
field, whatever he may have been in his late years with his 
beloved mistresses to the sports of the water j but, as he 
could not be supposed to have acquired a just knowledge of 
the manners and habits of his Hanoverian subjects, as dis- 
played in their sports and pastimes (and by which a very 
just criterion can be formed of the moral character of a peo- 
ple,) without witnessing a German hunt, it was determined 
that a day should be set apart, when His Majesty was to be 
inducted into the art of slaughtering a few hundred of rab- 
bits, hares, deer, and wild boars, according to the German 
fashion, and to which his royal brother of Cambridge was so 
much attached. This manner of hunting consists in the 
sportsmen stationing themselves at any given place $ whilst 
a number of huntsmen and peasants, forming themselves 
into a circle, at a considerable distance, and gradually con- 
centrating themselves, drive all the gane into the open place 
where the sportsmen are stationed. On this occasion, as 
one of the best reviers was chosen for the amusement of the 
King, two thousand three hundred and twenty-six head of 
game were killed. The rabbits became the perquisites of 
the peasants, who merely skin them, as almost all Germans 
entertain a strong prejudice against that animal as an article 
of food. 

The King spent ten days in his Hanoverian capital 
amidst rejoicings, public festivals, and private entertain- 
ments. The military, of course, were reviewed, and, as a 
further matter of course, the King was graciously pleased 
to express his high approbation of the excellent discipline 
which the troops displayed. He then received the civic 
deputations, listened with matchless gravity to their hyper- 
bolical effusions, in which he was called upon to believe 
himself the greatest monarch that ever trod the German 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 563 

soil. He then visited the University of Gottingen, where 
he most condescendingly 

• " tasted some of the water Gru- 



el, presented to him by the Tu- 
tors of the very renowned U- 
niversity of Gottingen." 

He then attended a civic ball, at which he danced a polo- 
naise with the lady of Herr von Schimmelpennick, waltzed 
with the burgomaster's eldest daughter, who had never 
before been entwined in the arms of royalty, accommodated 
himself most aptly to his people by speaking German— that 
is, such German as is taught in England ; he nattered his 
people bv wearing only the Guelphic Order ; and, after so 
many instances of his affability and condescension, he de- 
parted from Hanover, and in a few weeks the inhabitants 
of the city thought no more-oCihe visit of the King than as 
one of the common occurrences of the day. 

The King, on his return to England, and to the society of 
the Marchioness of Oonyngham, devised improvements and 
alterations in the royal edifices at Virginia Water and the 
Cottage. " Here Richard was himself again." 

Of the late Marchioness of Conyngham, this celebrated 
favorite of the King, it is difficult to ascertain when or 
at what time he added her to the royal circle 5 it is, how- 
ever, certain that the sincerest regard subsisted between 
them, and that her influence aver the royal mind, to the very 
last moments of the life of the King, was, perhaps, greater 
than had ever been exercised by any other female. The 
marchioness had been brought up with the greatest care 
and propriety; her education was accomplished, and her 
manners polished and refined ; the residence of her husband 
about the Court might have formed a sufficient protection 
for the honor of his wife ; but, when the influence of the 
marchioness took a political turn, the power superinduced 

26* 



564 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

on the attachment of the King excited surmises ; he winked 
at the fact, and pocketed the profits. 

By her influence the highest offices in the church were 
bestowed on persons scarcely previously heard of; political 
parties rose and fell, and ministers were created and deposed 
to gratify the ambition of the female ; the palace appeared 
as if surrounded by some pestilential air 5 the old hereditary 
counsellors of the King avoided the Court, as alike fatal to 
private property and public honor. Another course of 
policy would have been wiser and less questionable for the 
character of both parties, and the seclusion of the King, at 
once dignified and social, would have excited to a greater 
degree the respect and sympathy of his subjects ; bat the 
entrance to Windsor Castle was, as it were, hermetically 
sealed by the enchantress within to all but the favored few. 
The privilege of the entree was curtailed to the very old 
friends of the King, and even the commonest domestics in 
the Castle were constrained to submit to the control of the 
marchioness. The Court of George IY certainly differed 
widely from that of Charles IT, although the number and 
reputation of their several mistresses were nearly the same 
in favor and character ; but George IY had no confiscations 
to confer on the instruments of his pleasures. The reigns 
of Charles II and George IY, dissimilar as they might be in 
some respects, possessed, however, this similarity — that a 
spurious and illegitimate progeny were in neither case thrust 
forward to the contempt of all decency, and a heavy tax on 
the courtesy and forbearance of virtuous society. But if it 
be true that the King left to this mistress more than half a 
million of money, the outrage is morally the same as if 
estates had been alienated, or titles bestowed, to gratify 
her ambition, and the memory of the King will survive for 
the lavishment of sums raised on a people already borne 
down by the weight of taxation. Her son, Lord Francis, 
was made Earl of Mount Charles. During the reign of her 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING-. 665 

ladyship, he married* into the proud family of the Pagets, 
which shows that even in this century a great nobleman did 
not disdain to ally himself with a dishonored line. Our first 
glimpse of her ladyship is when she coaxes the King to 
make Sumner a bishop. The Duke of Wellington, who 
probably imagined that bishops should have a higher 
recommendation, opposed the appointment, for which the 
King never forgave him. Her ladyship lived in Marl- 
borough Row, and all the members of her family were sup- 
plied with the King's carriages, and so on. She dined with 
the King every day, but never appeared in public with him. 
She received magnificent presents. Her daughter Eliza- 
beth, who afterwards became Marchioness of Huntley, was 
similarly honored. 

Greville, in his Memoirs, makes a number of allusions to 
Lady Conyngham, and b_y_no means very flattering ; and 
why should he speak in any other way of her when he well 
knew she was but a common mistress of the King's % He 
says that fortunate female got possession of valuable 
jewels belonging to the crown; that he saw on her head, 
at a dinner party, one night, at Devonshire House, a 
sapphire that belonged once to the Stuarts, and was 
given by Cardinal York to the King. He gave it to the 
Princess Charlotte, and when she died it was returned to 
him, it being a crown jewel, and the crown jewel sparkled 
in the headdress of the royal mistress at the ball. The 
Duke of York was indignant at the circumstance.* 

Greville, speaking of "Lady" Conyngham and the 
King, and the power she exercised over him about this 
time, says: 

" Lady Conyngham lives in one of the houses in Marlborough Row. All 
the members of her family are continually there, and are supplied with 
horses, carriages, etc., from the King's stables. She rides out with her 

* Greville's Memoirs of the Reigns of George IV and William IV. 



566 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

daughter, but never with the King, who always rides with one of his 
gentlemen. They never appear in public together. She dines Jjjhere every 
day. Before the King comes into the room she and lady Elizabeth join him 
in the other room, and he always walks in with one on each arm. She 
comports herself entirely as mistress of the house. She has received mag- 
nificent presents, and Lady Elizabeth the same, particularly the mother has 
strings of pearls of enormous value. Madame de Lieven said she had seen 
the pearls of the grand duchesses and the Prussian princesses, but had 
never seen any nearly so fine as Lady Conyngham's. The other night Lady 
Bath was coming to the Pavilion. After dinner Lady Conyngham called to 
Sir "William Keppel and said, ' Sir William, do desire them to light up the 
saloon.' (This saloon is lit by hundreds of candles.) When the King came 
in she said to him, ' Sir, I told them to light up the saloon, as Lady Bath is 
coming this evening.' The King seized her arm and said, with the great- 
est tenderness, 'Thank you, thank you, my dear; you always do what is 
right. You cannot please me so much as by doing everything you 
please — everything to show that you are mistress here.' " 

These Memoirs of Mr. Greville have made a deeper im- 
pression in English literary and political circles, and in the 
United States, than any work since Macaulay's " History of 
England." Mr. Greville was a grandson of the third Duke 
of Portland. This proud relationship brought him closely 
into the first families of England, led to his being appointed 
early in life to the position of the Clerkship of the Council. 
An aristocrat, a man of taste, education, and literary acquire- 
ments, he embraced his opportunities, which were unusual, 
to put on record his observations of the reign of George 
IV. He became Clerk of the Council in 1821, and so 
remained for forty years. As the remainder of the journal 
would concern Queen Victoria and many of the men now 
famous in English public life, Mr. Reeve, it is said, has 
postponed its publication. 

The publication of these Memoirs at this time (1875) are 
regarded as too public an exposition of the private doings 
of " sacred royalty." But the world moves, and the people 
with it, and what was possible in 1831 in the suppression 
of " The Secret Memoirs of a King," is not possible in this 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 567 

progressive age of free press, telegraphs, and enlightened 
public option. Men have learned they can do without the 
" divine right of kings " to rule over them— that they can 
govern themselves ; that Republicanism is no longer an 
experiment — that royalty is an expensive bauble which an 
intelligent people can dispense with, and govern them- 
selves. 

The sooner the aristocracy of England understand this 
fact the better; and, if the governing classes will only yield 
to this progressive idea, which is becoming pretty gener- 
ally understood by the humblest Englishman, their mon- 
archy may exist for a few years to come, or be so modified 
in its- cost as to relieve the people of the heavy burdens 
they now suffer. r 

The author makes these reflections from the personal 
knowledge he gained of the^eelings of the people during 
his residence of several years among them, when he was 
brought in contact with all classes during his business 
transactions in every county of the kingdom ; he heard 
expressions not to be misunderstood on this head from 
persons in every walk of life. 

LadyjDonyngham seems to have held the same relation 
to George IV as Mme. Pompadour fulfilled in the memor- 
able and happy reign of the most Christian King, Louis 
XY of France. She was the wife of the Marquis of 
Conyngham, of whom we have spoken elsewhere, who had 
been created Yiscount Slane, Earl of Mount Charles, and 
Marquis of Conyngham, in the peerage of Ireland^ in 1818, 
when the King was Prince Regent. After he became King 
he made the Marquis an English peer, Baron Minister, 
as well as general officer in the army, and Knight of St. 
Patrick. In other words, within the present century, we 
find a King of England showering the honors of nobility 
upon the wretched husband of his paramour. This mistress 
took the place of another mistress, one Maria Fagaina, Lady 



568 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING-. 

Hertford. The popular esteem in which the^e ladies were 
held is curiously illustrated by a note of Mr. Greville's. 
"It is odd enough," he writes, " Lady Hertford's windows 
have been broken to pieces and the frames driven in, while 
no assaults have been made on Lady Conyngham. Some- 
body asked Lady Hertford if she had been aware of the 
King's admiration for Lady Conyngham, and whether he 
had ever talked about Lady Conyngham. She replied that 
intimately as she had known the King, and open as he had 
been with her on every subject, he had never ventured to 
speak with her about his mistresses !" Her ladyship never 
seems to have recovered her position in the affections of 
the King, but she lived for fourteen years after he acceded 
to the throne, and died in the reign of William IY. 

The first time George went to the theatre, after his cor- 
onation, it was to Drury Lane the Dukes of York and 
Clarence and a gre&t suite with. him. He was received 
with immense acclamations, the whole pit standing up^ 
hurrahing and waving their hats. The boxes were very 
empty at first, for the mob occupied the avenues to the 
theatre, and those who had engaged boxes could not get to 
them. The crowd on the outside was very great. Lord 
Hertford dropped one of the candles as he was lighting the 
King in, and made a great confusion in the box. The King 
sat in Lady Bessborough's box, which was fitted up for 
him. A few people called "The Queen," but very few. A 
man in the gallery called out, "Where's your wife, Georgy ?"* 
This man perhaps alluded to Caroline of Brunswick, and 
not to Mary Anne, the rightful Princess of Wales. 

The Privy Council would assemble at the several palaces 
at the King's convenience. The " Clerk of the Council" 
gives the following account of a meeting at Brighton : 

"I came to town, went to Brighton yesterday se'ennight for a council. 
I was lodged in the Pavilion and dined with the King. The gaudy splendor 

* Greville's Memoirs. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 569 

of the place amused me for a little and then bored me. The dinner was 
cold, and the evening dull beyond all dulness. They say the King is anx- 
ious that form and ceremony should be banished; and if so, it not only 
proves how impossible it is that form and ceremony should not always 
inhabit a palace. The rooms are not furnished for society, and, in fact, 
society cannot flourish without ease ; and who can feel at ease who is 
under tlie eternal constraint which etiquette and respect impose? The 
King was in good looks and good spirits, and after dinner cut his jokes 
with all the coarse merriment which is his characteristic. Lord Welles- 
ley did not seem to like it, but of course he bowed and smiled like the 
rest. I saw nothing very particular in the King's manner to Lady Conyng- 
ham. He sat by her on the couch almost the whole evening, playing at 
patience, and he took her into dinner ; but Madame De Lieven and Lady 
Cowper were there, and he seemed equally civil to all of them. I was 
curious to see the Pavilion and the life they lead there, and I now only 
hope I may never be there again, for the novelty is past, and I should be 
exposed to the whole weight of the bore of it without the stimulus of cu- 
riosity."* 

The Pavilion was not completely finished until some time 
after its owner's accession to the throne, and was forever 
after a ridicule to all persons of true aesthetic taste, and 
served its purpose as a model for an American showman 
to erect a dwelling from • making its grotesqueness answer 
as an advertisement for his profession. 

For some peculiar purpose, not very apparent, George 
had a secret subterranean passage constructed from the 
mansion whose exit was somewhere in the vicinity of the 
stables. The construction of this secret passage is said to 
have cost alone £5,000 ! 

Why the royal profligate should prefer this residence at 
Brighton is rather singular, as it was known in the latter 
years of his life he never took a sea-bath, for which Brighton 
alone is celebrated. 

When the royal voluptuary was growing old he changed 
his residence repeatedly. One night at the Eoyal Lodge, 
Esterhazy, to arouse him, brought down from London some 

* G-revihVs Memoirs. London, 1874. 



570 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

Tyrolese, who sang and danced before him the entire even- 
ing, and with whom lie was very familiar. He allowed the 
females of the troupe liberties with his royal person, the 
women repeatedly kissing him, which excited the ire of the 
reigning duenna " Lady" Conyngham, as we are informed 
by a contemporary who was present.* 

State affairs annoyed him, and he would shirk them as 
long as possible, and spend the money wrung from the tax- 
paying millions on such low pleasures. Britons, how long ? 
how long ? 

The King was tenacious about any interference in his ap- 
propriation of public money $ he was also touchy on the 
question of his private debts. " Macgregor told me," says 
Greville, "the other day, that not one of the physicians who 
attended the Duke of York had ever received the smallest 
remuneration, although their names and services had been 
laid before the King." There is a fine picture of His Majesty 
at a Jockey Club dinner. M I sat opposite to him, and he 
was particularly gracious to me, talking to me across the 
table and recommending all the good things. He made me, 
after eating a quantity of turtle, eat a dish of crawfish soup 
until I thought I should have burst. He then ordered paper ? 
pen, and so forth, and began making matches and stakes.' 7 
The King's fondness for racing was a famous point in his 
character. " After the council the King called me and 
talked to me about race horses, which he cares more about 
than the welfare of Ireland or the peace of Europe." But 
age was telling on this glorious Prince. u His Majesty keeps 
everybody at a great distance from him, and all about him 
are afraid of him. There is not one person about him whom 
he likes. The King told them the other day that his sur- 
geon, O'Reilly, was the damndest liar in the world." He 
was especially afraid of Sir William Knighton, a physician 
who had become Keeper of the Privy Purse, and who seemed 

* Greville. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OP A KING. 571 

to have a strange influence over Mm : u He is afraid of him, 
and that is the reason he hates him so bitterly. He delights 
in saying the most mortifying and disagreeable things to 
him. One day, when the door was opened so that the pages 
could hear, he said, 1 1 wish to God somebody would assas- 
sinate Knighton !' The King's indolence was so great that 
it was impossible to get him to do the most ordinary detail 
of business, and Knighton was the only person who could 
prevail upon him to sign papers. His greatest delight is to 
make those who have business to transact with him wait in 
his ante-room while he is lounging and talking of horses or 
any trivial matter ; and when he is told, i Sire, there is 
Watson waiting,' he replies, 'Damn Watson ; let him wait! 
He does it on purpose, and likes it !' " 

These stories of this great King's personal life and habits 
made their own impression^upon Mr. G-reville. u A more 
contemptible, cowardly, selfish, Unfeeling dog does not exist 
than this King, on whom such flattery is constantly lav- 
ished. The littleness of his character prevents his display- 
ing the dangerous faults that belong to great minds, but 
with the vices and weaknesses of the lowest and most con- 
temptible order it would be difficult to find a disposition 
more abundantly furnished." There is another glimpse of 
the Defender of the Faith, u dressed in a blue greatcoat, all 
over gold frogs and embroidery ; the greatest master of 
gossip in the world, and his curiosity about everybody's 
affairs insatiable." As everything that concerns this glori- 
ous monarch must interest the English-speaking world, 
we carefully gather these illustrations of his charac- 
ter. u He leads a most extraordinary life. He never 
gets up until six o'clock in the afternoon." It is 
pleasant to learn that he reads every newspaper quite 
through, as the Olerk of the Council said • we hope the 
present head of the British realm does the same. News- 
papers are a power, and when the monarchy of England 



572 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

trembles, when the great spirits underlying the great 
Chartist movement rises again, it will be found that news- 
papers are a power, and that they, in 1876, will speak out 
more distinctly than they did in 1848. " Three or four 
hours ago he got up in time for dinner, and retired to bed 
about ten or eleven. He sleeps very ill, and rings his bell 
forty times in a night. If he wants to know the hour, 
though a watch hangs close to him, he will have the valet 
de chambre down rather than turn his head to look at it. 
The same thing if he wants a glass of water; he won't 
stretch out his hand to get it." The person who had most 
control over him was Knighton— " he could do anything, 
and without him nothing could be done ; and after him 
Lady Gonyngham was all powerful." It is pleasant to 
know that this dear soul interfered for the comforts of the 
valets, and induced the King to make an arrangement 
lessening their labor. We have all heard of the politeness 
of " the first gentleman of Europe f but when O'Oonnell 
<■ ! n to his levee the King would not speak to him, simply 
say rug to those around, u Damn the fellow, what does he 
come here for % n Most of his time he spent under opiates, 
in the hands of three doctors — Sir Henry Holland, Brodie, 
and O'Reilly — O'Reilly, the go-ahead Irish surgeon, " who 
brought him all the gossip and tittle-tattle of the neigh- 
borhood," to the great annoyance of Knighton. The only 
thing he feared was ridicule ; but when it was necessary to 
decide upon questions of capital punishment in the Council 
" the King always leaned to the side of mercy. It not 
^infrequently happens that the culprit escapes owing to the 
scruples of the King." Let this pleasant trait be remem- 
bered to his honor, for there are few things in his life 
worthy of remembrance. Occasionally the mind of this 
glorious Prince became absorbed in serious questions. 
" This morning my brother and the Duke of Wellington 
were occupied for half an hour in endeavoring to fold a 



THE PKIVATE LTFE OF A KINO. 573 

letter to His Majesty in a particular way which he has 
prescribed, for he will have his envelopes made up in some 
French fashion." Sometimes lie grew into a terrible tan- 
trum, " so violent and irritable that he must have his own 
way." Thomas Denman, who had opposed him in his 
divorce suit, came, as Common Sergeant of London, to 
make report of the number of people under sentence of 
death. The King would not see him, " so that business is 
at a standstill, and the unfortunate wretches under sentence 
of death are suffered to linger on." u The expenses of the 
civil list," and this, though Wellington was Prime Minis- 
ter, u exceeded the amounts in every quarter, but nobody 
can guess how the money is spent. My belief is that cer- 
tain persons plunder him." In this, the last year of his 
life, the country will be gratified in knowing that his 
annual tailor's bill was between^£4,000 and £5,000, and " he 
is now employed in devising new dresses for the guards." 
This subject of a dress for the guards evidently grew upon 
His Majesty's mind; for a month later we find a record to 
the effect that no council had been held, as the King was 
occupied in altering the uniforms of the guards, " and has 
pattern coats with various colors submitted to him every 
day. The Duke of Cumberland assists him, and^this is his 
principal occupation. He sees much more of his tailor than 
he does of his ministers." The Duke of Cumberland was 
his brother, who will be remembered as Earl of Armagh, 
Knight of the Garter, Knight of St. Patrick, of the Prus- 
sian Orders of the Black and Red Eagles, and Field Mar- 
shal in the army. His sou became King of Hanover, and 
is now the same blind old gentleman who was turned out of 
his kingdom by Bismarck, and who wanders over Europe. 
We have a pleasant trait of his dethroned Majesty which 
is worth repeating : " The Duke of Cumberland's boy, who 
is at Kew, diverts himself with making the guard turn out 
several times in the course of a day to salute him." But 



574 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

His Majesty would not see Denman. The Duke of Wel- 
lington could not compel him, " although there were three 
men who must be hanged." 

Conyngham, the royal concubine, was strongly in favor 
of Catholic emancipation, and we infer that her influence 
induced the King to consent to that measure. Life, we fear, 
cannot have been altogether pleasant to this exalted woman, 
for we have a glimpse of her at the Eoyal Lodge, one eve- 
ning when the Tyrolese were dancing, " looking bored to 
death." She did not lose her hold upon the King daring 
his life. She and Knighton were all-powerful. " Nothing 
could be clone but by their permission, and they understood 
one another and played into each other's hands. Knighton 
opposes every kind of expense except what is lavished on 
her. The^ wealth she has accumulated by savings and 
presents must be enormous. The King continues to lavish 
all kinds of presents upon her, and she lives at his expense. 
They do not possess a servant. Even Lord Conyngham's 
valet is not properly their servant ; they all have situations 
in the King's household, from which they receive pay while 
they continue in the service of the Oonynghams. They 
dine every day, while in London, at St. James' Palace, and 
when they give a dinner it is cooked at St. James' and 
brought up to Hamilton Place in hackney coaches, and in 
machines made expressly for the purpose. There is merely 
a fire lit in the kitchen for such things as must be heated 
on the spot. At Windsor the King sees very little of her 
except of evenings. He lies in bed half the day or more, 
sometimes goes out, and sometimes goes to her room for an 
hour or so in the afternoon, and that is all he sees of her. 
A more despicable scene cannot be exhibited than that 
which the interior of our Court presents. Every base, low, 
unmanly propensity, with selfishness, avarice, and a life of 
petty intrigue and mystery." Nor did the King confine his 
attentions to her ladyship, for we find him inviting a parcel 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 575 

of " eldest sous and lords in possession to the Cottage, in 
order to find a husband for Lady Maria, her daughter, who, 
however, was not married until after this good sovereign's 
death, wheu she espoused Lord Athlumney, then Sir Wil- 
liam Summerville, the motto of whose house was, Tear 
God as long as thou shalt live.' " When the King was 
dying her ladyship was constant in her attentions. " At 
that time she was in wretched spirits, and did nothing but 
gray from morning until night. Her conscience, however, 
difr not seem to have interfered with her ruling passion, 
avarice, and she went on accumulating." Mr. Greville 
says, " while the King was dying wagons were loaded every 
night and sent away from the castle, the supposition being 
that they were treasures for the house of Conynghain." 
Her ladyship died in 1861, at a very old age, having cov- 
ered her family with wealtlTami honor, won by her dishonor 
from a dishonest and worn-out King.* 

The fact that George IY, with all his wretchedness and 
frivolity, was actually as powerful in many respects as. 
Charles II, must go far toward the strengthening of that 
republican sentiment which for a long time has been gath- 
ering life in England, and the realization of which will be 
aided by such books as this of Mr. Greviile's nuke than by 
any other cause. 

The severest attack on Mr. Greviile's work is that of Abra- 
ham Hayward's in the "London Quarterly," January, 1875, 
from which we have given a pertinent extract elsewhere. 
Mr. Hay ward, however, is unable to disprove anything. 
The review in "Temple Bar" is less stringent, and there. is 
such a quiet vein of sarcastic humor running through it 
that we quote a few paragraphs : " Mr. Stapleton, the ac- 
complished secretary of Canning, has written an article in 
"Macmillan's Magazine," wherein he states that the historical 
value of Greviile's book is small, but the scandal is amus- 

*.G-revil1e's Memoirs. 



576 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

ing to some. Amusing to some! Why, everybody in 
Great Britain is running about crazy to find the book. 
From the publisher's library in Belgravia to the remotest 
railway station bookstall every subscriber is shouting out, 
" Give us Greville or we die !" Frantic dowagers who love 
money much, but scandal more, have been induced to 
abandon parsimonious habits and purchase the book, and 
we are certain none of them will ever have the opinion that 
their money has been wasted. What can be more amusing 
to a loyal people than an impeachment of the house -of 
Brunswick written by a Greville and not by a Bradlaugh, in 
which George IV, our "religious and gracious King," is 
described as a " dog and beast ;" William IV, " our sailor 
King," as an "ass, buffoon, and blackguard ;" the " good 
Queen Adelaide" as a "hideous, horrid, spotted Queen;" 
the Duke of Gnmberland as a "Tarquin;" the Duke of 
Gloucester as a "fool," and the Duchess of Kent a "nuis- 
ance." The great nobles, it is true, are treated a little more 
kindly; the great Duke of Northumberland is only de- 
scribed as "a bore beyond bores;" the Duke of Rutland, 
the Duke of Cleveland, and Lord Lonsdale are gibbeted as 
personally "the most insignificant of mankind;" the Duke 
of Newcastle and Lord Grosvenor, afterwards Marquis of 
Westminster, are called " great, selfish, pampered aristo- 
crats." With respect to Mr. Greville's friends of the turf, 
they are branded as "blackguards and fools." Eather 
hard on the fools, as we believe they contributed materially 
to Mr. Greville's income. 

But the betting 'gentlemen will be consoled when they 
see that the graduates of Oxford and Cambridge, headed 
by the solemn dons, marching to congratulate William IV 
on his accession, are playfully depicted as " an academical 
tag-rag and bob-tail." With regard to Mr. Greville's treat- 
ment of an inferior, or, as he terms it, a more " degraded 
class of society," the following entry will suffice : 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 577 

" London, Feb. 29th. 

Dined yesterday at Fortunatus Dwarris', who was Counsel to the Board 
of Health. One of those dinners that people in that class of society put 
themselves in an agony to give, and generally their friends in an agony to 
partake of." 

Every one must admit that all classes are kicked about 
by Mr. Greville with grandest impartiality. But the royal 
person he most detested was Queen Adelaide, whom he 
seldom mentions without a sneer at her plainness. She 
couldn't help her complexion. Fortunately her character 
was above imputation, although Mr. Greville gives some 
curious details about Lord Howe'. When the Queen was 
supposed to be enceinte he says : " Of course there will be 
plenty of scandal; Alvanly proposes that the Psalm, 
4 Lord, how wonderful are thy works !' be sung. It so hap- 
pens f hoicever, that Howe has^not been to Court for a consider- 
able time." 

It is the policy of some people never to believe anything 
which is written against the great. A very shrewd man 
was of a different opinion ; a parvenu was once telling the 
old Duke of Queensbury of some libels published against 
the aristocracy. " They are infamous," said the parvenu ; 
¥ They are shocking," said the duke ; " So false," said the 
parvenu ; u Ah ! there's the trouble," said the duke ; " we 
shouldn't care for them if they were false, but they are so 
confounded true." 

It is only an aristocrat like Mr. Greville who could per- 
form the stern task of analyzing royal society. It is true 
he is inexorable. There are wretched people running about 
London prophesying that the remaining volumes are to be 
cremated in presence of a lord-in-waiting. We cannot be- 
lieve Mr. Eeeve will act so unkindly to his friends and the 
great English public, who, like Oliver Twist, are " crying 
for more." 

If English writers have, in many instances, ridiculed 



578 THE PRIVATE LIFE OP A KING. 

Americans, it will be seen they can sometimes be merci- 
less in the treatment of their own 'countrymen. We are 
conscious we shall be accused of using upon our canvass 
colors too dark and sombre, that we have no right to call 
royalty of a past generation into dispute. In the abstract, 
we place no more value upon royalty than upon less 
prominent humanity j and when its acts tend to the 
demoralization of the people, then it is proper and right 
that it should be arraigned at the bar of public opinion. 
Again, there will not be wanting those who will say we 
have no right to delineate a character but from well 
authenticated facts. How far we have overstepped the 
bounds of probability we leave to the judgment of every 
intelligent reader. As an American writing for Ameri- 
cans, let it not he said^ in our strictures of British aristoc- 
racy, we are blind to the faults of our own social system. 
The criterion of English rank is birth, that of America, 
gold. The whole principle of our aristocracy is false, and 
deserves the satire of Saxe's inimitable poem. The only 
aristocracy consistent with republican principles, is that of 
intellect. It is a sight over which angels might veil their 
heads in shame, when man, formed in the image of his 
Maker, is weighed in the balance against a handful of 
yellow earth. A smile of tha blind goddess may convert 
the dullest boor into a living money bag ; only the Al- 
mighty Buler of the Universe can give him brains. 

We have no ambition to be ranked with crazed reformers 
of social abuses, but we cannot forbear uttering a protest 
against the dangerous and t undue importance which Ameri- 
cans attach to the mere possession of wealth, which is the 
festering cause of such infamous corruption in its dishonest 
acquisition. 

To return to the more immediate subject of our his- 
tory. The great event of the year 1822 was the King's 
visit to Scotland, the land of cakes. For the edification 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 579 

of his " loving subjects," South ey celebrated the won- 
derful event in a pdnderous poem of laudatory char- 
acter. 

.From this era is dated the commencement of the King's 
seclusion. The last time he appeared in public, with th> 
exception of his prorogation of Parliament, was at the 
theatres in 1823. The manager of Co vent Garden found 
that his royal visitor had a perceptible influence upon his 
treasury, the receipts amounting to nearly a thousand 
pounds. It may be the record of this fact in theatrical 
history which induced American managers to put forth 
such extraordinary exertions to secure the presence of our 
late royal guest, the King of the Sandwich Islands, at 
their respective establishments. 

George I V Upon this occasion was received with consid- 
erable enthusiasm by the people, which was in part attrib- 
uted to the comparative prosperity of the nation in 1823. 
It is in times of national distress and panic that kings and 
rulers are most unpopular. Perhaps no sovereign ever 
understood this better than the late Emperor Louis Na- 
poleon. 

It may be called American rant - and bluster, but what 
man of sound judgment, capable of discerning the relation 
of cause and effect, does not know that sooner or latter all 
monarchical Governments must fall before the liberalism of 
the age ? The English aristocracy see it, and know it, but 
lull themselves with the hope it will come upon their pos- 
terity, and not in their own time. 

The following extracts from tihe. u Black Book" <5f the 
Chartists prove that so long ago as 1849, when the details 
of Government abuses were not so well ventilated among 
the masses as at the present day, the grievances of the 
down-trodden taxpayers found voice, none the less audible 
for being smothered. Let intelligent Americans read and 
reflect : 



f>PO THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

Inquire, into the origin of our oldest peerages, and what do we find it to be ? 
Successful thievery i That is the qualification, which the law has made 
eternal. Lords now, lords ever — once a thief, always a thief. First, they 
stole our lands — they were then chiefs of Norman freebooters. Rob Roys 
and Turpins of the Red Hand. Their sole title, originally,' was the sword. 
The mottoes of the oldest noble houses unblushingly proclaim the vocation 
of the aristocracy. " My crown by the spear," boast the Middleton family. 
"To my power," says the Stamford family, under six gaping boars' heads, 
with tusks exposed. " Furth fortune and fill the fetters," says Athol, whose 
scions and associates have filled their fetters with a nation. " The profits of 
industry increase," says Heyfce'sbury, whose industry has brought him in a 
pension of £1,'700 a year, with fat places for his relatives in the army and 
the Church. Honi soit qui mal ypense — " Accursed be he who thinks there's 
evil in it," say the Lords of the Garter, who fill their pockets out of the 
public taxes! "Nothing that belongs to man but belongs to me," say the 
Talbots — large owners of plundered possessions. " Prepared for every 
Chance," says Earl Combermere, who pockets an annual pension of £4,116. 
" The red hand of Ireland" is flourished by the O'Neills, the titled head of 
the house being, appropriately enough, a lieutenant-general. " The dragon's 
Crest is to be feared," says the Marquis of Londonderry, and fearful enough 
it is when he comes down upon us for our money, which he and his family 
absorb largely. "Over, fork over," quaintly but emphatically says Marquis 
Conyngham. " Following the example of his ancestors," says Baron Gran- 
ville, whose son was ejected even from the corrupt House of Commons, the 
other day, for practising bribery at Derby. " Spare naught," says Marquis 
Tweedale,'who certainly spares not our pockets. "Thou shalt want ere I 
want," says Baron Cranston, which last- might indeed be adopted as the 
motto of the entire aristocratic class. "It is thine own," says Earl Cowper, 
a hereditary pensioner at the rate of £1,600. a year — but it is "his own" — ■ 
the public spoil — the taxes — they are his heritage, and the heritage of his 
class. "Watch and pray," says Tiscount Castlemaine — watch and prey is 
the true reading. 

"While the fortunes of many of the peers have been founded in the dark 
ages of physical force and despotic crime, others have obtained their titles 
and estates by servile toadying of kings; some by treason to their "legiti- 
mate" princes ; others by success in modern warfare, and others through 
the slimy avenues of the law courts. 

Allowing that a successful general, or a successful lawyer who has made 

a fortune, should be elevated to the peerage, is this any reason why his 

descendants forever should sit as peers too? How many eldest sons have 

inherited the ability and fame of their fathers ? Look at the representatives 

2T* 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 581 

of our great military lords now ! What are they ? Mostly dolts, as unfitted 
to be legislators as a brewer's horse. Take, for instance, the Duke of Marl- 
borough with his annual pension of £5,000 ; or the thick-headed sons of the 
Duke of Wellington ? What great lawyer peer has been succeeded by an 
heir of any note whatever? What philosopher has the House of Lords 
produced ? Is there a single one ? But how many boobies could we enu- 
merate who have sprung from it I 

We would respect an aristocracy of virtue and of goodness, and even 
reverence it. But where the aristocracy is one only of brass — of brass in 
the pocket, brass on the heels, and brass in the face — we can feel for it 
only indignation and contempt. 

It is right that the best and ablest meD should govern. But making leg- 
islators hereditary gives no security whatever that the legislators shall be 
either good or able men. On the other hand, it makes them exclusive, proud, 
hostile to popular rights and liberties, place hunters, pension seekers, abuse 
preservers, tax consumers, Court haunters — giving more regard to a bit of 
ribbon or a garter conferred by the monarch than to the peace, the lives, 
the properties, and the liberties of their fellow men. 

The majority of the House of PeersUq_,not possess the qualities of legis- 
lators. They are good hunters, horse jockeys, courtiers, some of them great 
warriors and lawyers, great lovers of display, good living, and large estates ; 
but in sympathy for the mass of their fellow men, knowledge of their condi- 
tion, lofty guiding principle, and high moral character, they are wofully 
destitute. ' 

In fact, goodness and virtue have had nothing whatever to do with the 
creation of the House of Lords, or of any single individual peerage. The 
peerage has been a great job from the first to the last. Was a great owner 
of land ambitious of title — he was made a hereditary legislator ! Was he 
a great owner of rotton boroughs — he was made a peer ! Was he a large 
proprietor of Church livings — he was forked into the lords 1 Was he a 
slavish lawyer — he was added to the peerage! Was a large landowner 
troublesome as a "patriot" — he was bought off by a title! Thus the peer- 
age is, and has ever been, the treasury of corruption. Hence a large por- 
tion of the peerage now consists of upstart men — but of men who were 
rich. To be rich and powerful owners of boroughs and, consequently of 
votes — have, in recent times, been the main qualifications to be a peer. 

Thus it happens that the House of Lords is a house full of pensioners, 
placemen, and sinecurists, who employ their position and power mainly 
for the purpose of providing for themselves and their families at the cost of 
the industry, property, labor, and well-being of the industrious millions. 
" Filthy lucre" is their objeet Scarcely one of them but eagerly aspires 



582 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

after the unclean thing — not even excepting those pillars of Christian self- 
denial — the well-paid bishops. The peerage is, indeed, the rankest of all 
jobs in this job-ridden country. 

They think no shame of making speculation and plunder their following 
and profession. Lords in the possession of estates bringing them in from 
forty to three hundred thousand a year, unblusbingly quarter their sons, 
brothers, cousins, and half-cousins on the public purse. 

There are only 4*7 of the 433 peers who have not relatives in either the 
army, navy, or church; and of these a considerable proportion are new 
peers, who have not yet had time to strike their roots deep into the public 
purse. Others have no families and very few relatives ; others are heredi- 
tary idiots and lunatics, of both of which classes of individuals the peers 
are proved, from statistical documents, to be extremely productive. The 
former class, the idiots, are not, however, debarred thereby from the privi- 
lege of sitting in the Upper House as legislators for the nation at large; 
one of the gross indignities to which this idiotic system , of " hereditary 
legislation " inevitably subjects us. 

One of the greatest disturbing causes of royal ease under 
all monarchial Governments has been the succession, and 
England has not been exempt from the presence of this 
skeleton in her royal closet. This explains why the Lord 
Chancellor used so much vigilance in the suppression of Per- 
ceval's book, which cost the British Government £20,000 to 
keep its secrets from the public eye. The mystery of the 
suppression of this book is not great when we remember 
that it was a contemporaneous event with his elevation to 
the ministry. His duties as commissioner to investigate 
the charges brought against Caroline acquainted him with 
all the secret history of the Court. We have had access to 
a copy of Perceval's suppressed book, and in it we see how 
diametrically opposite in political views he was to the 
Prince, and in personal feeling exhibited a feeling little 
short of hatred. In his plaint for the Princess of Wales he 
says, in as delicate and considerate language a subject 
should use in speaking of an erring son to a mother and a 
Queen, " Much wrong has been done Her Royal Highness 
by the reckless manner His Eoyal Highness has obtruded 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 583 

certain ladies (of whose peculiar connection with. His Royal 
Highness your Majesty is well aware) upon the presence 
and against the respectful protest of Her Royal Highness. 
Nor would it be seemly for me to mention names well known 
to your Majesty of the distinguished ladies who have so 
officiously interfered in the royal household, as your Majesty 
has been pleased frequently to manifest your royal disap- 
probation of their questionable conduct. Nor perhaps 
should I state, lest your Majesty might construe the state- 
ment into a threat, that there are grave political considera- 
tions involved, for facts are Jcnow?i to Her Royal Highness as 
well as myself which, if known to your Majesty's subjects at 
large, might seriously disturb the succession, or create a polit- 
ical revolution. Her Royal Highness has intimated the 
knowledge of these portentous facts to His Royal 
Highness." ^^ 

It was of course all important to~ those interested in " the 
succession," that these "portentous facts " should not be 
known to the " loyal subjects " of the realm, hence the sup- 
pression at the enormous cost stated. 

The facts referred to were the marriage of the Prince 
with Mrs. Fitzherbert, the post obit bond transaction, by 
which treason was involved, and that referring to the suc- 
cession evidently pointed to an issue of his marriage 
with Mrs. Fitzherbert, which since has been asserted there 
was, and if so perhaps the u claimant" now living is, as he 
claims to be, a scion of true royalty, and as such fully en- 
titled to the honors as George Y ; such an event is not more 
improbable than the fact of the elevation of Louis Napoleon 
to the throne of France. 

Upon this, the eve of the Centennial Anniversary of our 
glorious emancipation from the rule of that power whose 
acts are recorded in these pages, with what additional in- 
terest do we regard its historical annals so intimately inter- 
woven in our own history ! One hundred years ago from 



584 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

this present moment of our writing, the proceedings of 
Parliament record the adoption of that policy by the mother 
country which shut out all hope of reconciliation with the 
American colonies. On February 1st, L775, the Earl of 
Chatham introduced a bill before the House of Lords tend- 
ing to a pacification with the colonies, which was bitterly 
opposed by the Earl of Sandwich, who declared that 
rebellion already existed in Massachusetts, and called for 
troops to crush the struggle in its infancy. How futile 
were the efforts of the greatest power on earth to crush 
that infant Kepublic, and what the obstinacy of George III 
cost his nation are too well known to need recapitulation 
here. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 585 



ffiftapter (6i$Attu. 



When Parliament opened in 1824 the public affairs of 
England were comparatively prosperous. The abundance 
of capital induced a feverish spirit of speculation, and the 
most extravagant schemes, as in the days of the South Sea 
Bubble, found ready support, but the inevitable crash which 
always succeeds these epochs, as has been often illustrated 
in the history of our Republic, was not long delayed. In 
the general bankruptcy and commercial panic which fol- 
lowed, the King remained inert, manifesting little or no 
interest in the affairs of the nation. Enshrined within the 
precincts of his palaces, he was spared the witness of the 
national distress which was manifest upon every side. 

It is not within the province of our work to record the 
public events of England occurring between 1824 and 1830, 
the year of the death of George IV. This period may be 
regarded as the old age of the King, Lady Gonyngham had 
now a complete ascendancy ; her authority was more power- 
ful than that of the first minister of state, and it is no 
exaggeration to say that during the last years of George 
IV the British nation was governed by his mistress, whose 
descendants still live to enjoy the wealth she amassed 
through her infamous relations to the sovereign of the realm. 

Early in January, 1830, it became known to the public 
that the king was afflicted with an incurable disease. He 
recovered sufficiently to hold a court at Windsor Castle on 
the 7th of the following April. Five days later he rode 
out for the last time, and returned to the Castle never to 
leave it again but as the tenant of a coffin. His illness now 
increased so rapidly as to alarm his physicians. Sir Matthew 
Tierney was sent for April 15th, and after a medical con- 
sultation the first bulletin was issued, which was as follows: 



586 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

"Windsor Castle, April 16. 
We regret to state that the King has had a bilious attack, accompanied by 
an embarrassment in breathing. His Majesty, although free from fever, is 
languid and weak." 

This bulletin gave rise to many criticisms, and it must be 
apparent that either the King himself was ignorant of the 
nature of his disease, and that his physicians wished to 
keep him so, or that his physicians were themselves, in his 
case, ignorant of the nature of a disease whose diagnosis is 
never very difficulty the former supposition is infinitely the 
more probable of the two. The bulletin was addressed 
partly to the King himself, and partly to the public j it 
gave the latter to understand that their sovereign was in 
danger, while it did not inform His Majesty of what none 
of his subjects could have desired him to be informed of — 
that his doom was sealed, and that a few months must ter- 
minate his career on earth. To look on certain death for 
days before hand is, perhaps, the bitterest part of a crimi- 
nal's sufferings j but surely no one would have inflicted that 
torture on royalty for months. We never disputed the 
firmness, physically speaking, of George IV, but this would 
have been putting it to an unnecessary ordeal. 

His sufferings at this period were intense, his groans 
could be heard by the sentinels upon the quadrangle, at a 
great distance from the couch of anguish. On Sunday 
night it was thought necessary that both physicians should 
remain in attendance on the King, principally for the pur- 
pose of issuing a joint bulletin on Monday morning. In 
regard to this and the other bulletins that were issued, 
although they may be considered as historical documents, 
yet we must refrain from inserting them, especially as their 
great object was to deceive the people as to the real state of 
his malady. Perhaps in no case of a royal malady were the 
bulletins so remarkable for their obscurity ; and although 
the final result might have been early predicted with toler- 



THE PRIVATE LLPE OF A KING. 587 

able accuracy, yet this source of information was closed 
against the people, and many interests suffered from this 
unusual and unnecessary ambiguity. 

The death-bed scene of a monarch is one of the most 
impressive lessons that humanity can be taught. It shows 
the nothingness — the emptiness of earthly grandeur ; and 
that a king, after all, is nothing more than a mere human 
being, subject to a common destiny, as the meanest beggar 
of the country. Let us view George IV, in the most splen- 
did palace of the Kings of England, surrounded by elegance 
and luxuries unknown to his predecessors, lying on his 
couch of anguish. A life of prosperity was near its close ; 
the poisonous dregs of the cup of pleasure " gnawed his 
inwards f the authority of the monarch could not exalt the 
voice of weakness ; the glance of the triumphant opponent 
of a world in arms could not repel the approach of the last 
enemy 5 the powers of a rarely equalled constitution were 
exhausted ; the " mould of form" was pressed out of its fair 
proportions by pain and decay 5 the features of beauty were 
no longer enlightened with the glow of health and the beam 
of intellect. A poor old man, the wreck of a fine person, 
loaded with more than the infirmity of age and sickness, he 
was an object of painful contemplation to his attendants. 
The offices of duty, which men in humble stations claim 
from friends and relatives, and which are offered with love 
and pity, were performed by persons paid to offer them, 
and whose nearest affections sprung from their own self- 
interest. This is one of the penalties which the frailty of 
human nature exacts from greatness. If at any moment 
the king can be an object of curiosity to the philosopher, it 
is in the moment of death. George IV had long been the 
envy of his people ; how different were the feelings which 
the scene we are now about to describe was calculated to 
excite ! 

In the course of Friday evening, the 25th, before nine 



588 TfiE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 

o'clock, the physicians intimated to the royal patient their 
inability to give him further relief, and their opinion that 
his last moments were rapidly approaching. To this com- 
munication he replied, "God's will be done;" and in a few 
moments after he asked, "Where is Chichester?" The 
Bishop of Chichester was instantly summoned to the royal 
chamber, and at his hands the dying sovereign received the 
sacrament. During the administration of this rite he was 
much less troubled by the cough than he had previously 
been. The crisis was now approaching. 

The King was in bed when the stroke of death fell upon 
him . The page next to him in stantly proceeded to raise him, 
according to the motion which he signified by his finger. 
The King was at once assisted to his chair, and a great 
alteration overcast the royal countenance ; the King's eyes 
became fixed, his lips quivered, and he appeared to be sink- 
ing into a fainting fit. The physicians were instantly sent 
for, and the attendants at once assisted the King with sal 
volatile, eau de Cologne, and such other stimulants as were 
at hand on the table. At this moment he attempted to 
raise his hand to his breast, faintly ejaculating, u Oh, God ! 
I am dying ;" and, after two or three seconds of time, he 
uttered the following words, which were his last : " This is 
Death !" his expiring condition barely enabling him to 
announce the fatal sensation so as to be heard by the page, 
on whose shoulder his head had fallen. He died exactly at 
thirteen minutes past three o'clock on Saturday morning ; 
and, from the moment of his dying exclamation, his disso- 
lution came on so quietly and so gradually that the physi- 
cians had some difficulty in ascertaining precisely at what 
moment he ceased to exist. In the meantime the Bishop 
of Chichester, and all the principal members of the royal 
household, with the pages in immediate attendance, were 
called in, and in their presence, without the slightest indi- 
cation of suffering, George Guelph calmly expired. 




THE ANGEL OF DEATH, WITH UNERRING WING, 
DRAGS TO THE TOMB BOTH TEASANT AND KING. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KING. 589 

All that is mortal of the subject of these memoirs lies in 
the grand mausoleum built by George III, expressly appro- 
priated for royalty. He who in life could occupy number- 
less palaces, adorned with treasures of art and wealth, must 
now become the tenant of a melancholy vault, subject to the 
same laws of loathsome decay as the meanest beggar of his 
kingdom. We have traced the private career of this proud 
monarch from the cradle to the tomb, beyond whose portals 
he has long since gone to render his account at that tribunal 
before which all men must once appear. 

We can anticipate the censure we shall incur in certain 
quarters for this public exposition of the vices of royalty; 
but exacting history demands the truth, damaging as it 
may be, and fall who may. The spirit of modern inquiry is 
aroused, and " woe be to the country or the crown when the 
truth shall be stifled, or when the only voice heard is that 
of flattery." 

Greville, in his graphic language, says : " There have 
been good and wise kings, but not many ; take them one 
with another, they are an ordinary set, but George the 
Fourth is the worst I have eVer known." But there is little 
reason to fear the reign of another with such a record. 
" The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly 
small f the power of monarchs is becoming less and less 
circumscribed under the advancing liberalism of the age. 
The press, the universal schoolmaster, is abroad in Eng- 
land ; no hamlet so obscure, no cottage so poor, but what 
it penetrates. The ploughman, the artisan and mechanic, 
in the intervals of their labor, read and reflect. "Why must 
we sweat and toil that nobles and princes may fatten upon 
our labor ? We want not anarchy nor revolutions ; we only 
want our rights. What claim has the nobility upon our 
earnings? If they are unable to support their dignity from 
their own resources, then let tnem appear in their proper 
characters as titled beggars ; if they cannot support them- 



590 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A KINO. 

selves by useful services, then let them descend from their 
fictitious rank and assume a lower station, for there is no 
true dignity that is not founded injustice." 

Thus, underlying the surface of English society, are 
slowly forming the elements of the comiug bloodless revo- 
lution, when public opinion, in its own good time, will 
culminate in the majesty of power, and proclaim the people 
King. 

My American countrymen, are there not lessons for us 
in the record of these pages ? Our legislation is not so per- 
fect but what it may benefit by heeding the errors of those 
great powers which were old in age before our Eepublic 
had an existence. 

When our rulers become demoralized in their private 
lives, when our legislators frame laws that oppress the peo- 
ple, or when might seeks to conquer right, then will our ship 
of state stand in danger of wrecking upon those dangerous 
rocks and shoals upon which have stranded the rule and 
power of nations of the past. 



The Dollar Edition for the Million 



OF 



BANVARD'S 




ILLUSTRATED. 



£1,000 KEWAED. 



— More About the Book. 

Tins certifies that I took 

to the office of H. R. Brown, Esq., 599 Broadway (the gentleman who offered 

£1,000 reward for a certain book), an English copy of the " Memoirs of 

George TV," expecting said reward. Mr. Brown said it was of no account, 

being common, but informed me the a suppressed book " wanted, and the only 

one he found, was in the possession of Mr. Banvard, the artist, who refused 

the reward of £1,000 for it. 

A. A. FRANK, 

New York, March Sth, 18*75. 508 Greenwich Street. 

Mr. Banvard prints the royal secrets sought to be suppressed by the 
British Government in his " Private Life of a King," and no other work has 
them. 



PUBLISHED BY 



LITERARY and ART PUBLISHING COMPANY, 

806 BROADWAY, NEJif YORK. 
SENT FREE BY MAIL ON RECEIPT OF PRICE. 



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